NEWS FROM BRAZIL supplied by SEJUP (Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz).
Number 497, October 3, 2003

In this issue:
         - An interview with Dom Tomás Balduino
         - Brazil Liberates Planting of Genetically Modified Soy


         - An interview with Dom Tomás Balduino

Bishop Emeritus of Goiás is his title, but it is impossible to cite the
name of dom Tomás Balduino without mentioning the word "land."  Dom Tomás
earned his degrees--a Master's in Theology and Philosophy and post-graduate
degrees in Anthropology and Linguistics--in places quite distinct and
distant from each other: France and the Brasília.  Dom Tomás, also the
National President of the Church's Pastoral Land Commission, is most famous
for his work on behalf of those who struggle to have a piece of their own
land.  From Goiânia, between meetings with landless workers, with much
energy for an 81 year-old, dom Tomás granted this interview with Jornal do
Brasil:

Jornal do Brasil: You have accompanied this struggle for land since the
70's.  What has changed?

Dom Tomás: The movement used to be very limited in numbers.  Today there
are over 200 entities, each with their own characteristics and
flags.  There is a consensus among the groups regarding constitutional
reform, but in the details each is different.  I participated in a meeting
in which three entities came together so they could be stronger.

JB: Are their ideological differences among these groups?

DT: No, just small things by way of highlighting different areas of
concern.  What is evident is the multiplication of settlements.  It's quite
incredible.  I went to Jussara, 110 kilometers from Goiás Velho.  On the
way there, I saw just a few tents being set up, but on the way back, there
was already a small city of tents which had emerged.  There is rapid,
explosive growth.  The same phenomenon that happens in the peripheries of
the big cities is happening in the countryside.  This is a result of the
hopes that President Lula has given.  There is much hope to gain land by
settling.  Not so much through occupations as the groups nowadays seem to
be more cautious.  They seem to know their limits.

JB: Is it possible that the movement of landless workers will create a
political party?

DT: Anything is possible under the sun.  But this would be improbable.  It
would be a weakening of the movement.  And it would be a segmented
party.  Popular movements have more freedom of action than political
parties.  They have more connections with civil society.  With political
parties, it is hard to be in touch with communities.  You are always one
step behind.  The landless movements are aware of this.  But this doesn't
mean that they can't be a political movement which works to reform land
structures with the participation of a mass of people who are excluded from
the rights of citizenship.  Fernando Henrique Cardoso accused the MST
(Movement of Rural Workers Without Land) of being political.  That's not an
accusation.  That's a compliment.  To be called apolitical would be an insult.

JB: The MST wants to settle 120,000 families.  The government says is
doesn't have the money.  What do you make of this ongoing saga?

DT: It's a fight.  Counting those settled, we only have 140,000.  If it
were another government, folks would be critical, on the
opposition.  However, since we have a populist government, people feel
co-responsible.  And the co-responsibility of the popular movements is
called pressure.

JB: So Lula will feel more pressure than FHC?

DT: Yes.

JB: Do you think that occupying land is the way to bring about agrarian reform?

TB: In a country where there are so many big land owners, where those in
charge are blinded by power and money, what else can a poor person
do?  Look what the African slaves did after the "Law of Land" was passed,
which said they only had a right to land by purchasing it or inheriting
it.  From whom could the slave inherit land, or how could he buy it?  So,
far from sight of their from masters, they occupied land in a very
peaceful, non-violent manner.  And eventually they gained legal title to
their land.  Why today do we condemn this sort of process when it has a
historical basis?  The difference is that today this process is
organized.  Before FHC signed a provisionary measure which made occupation
a crime, Incra ( the national agrarian reform institution) used to converse
with the land owner to see if the land was productive or not.  Today they
don't even do that.  Those settlements today which are successful were
established through occupations, and not through agrarian reform or a
result of the government attending to the needs of the people.  They call
occupations "violent," but what about the violence of hunger, or the
harassment of those on these settlements.

JB: And what do you think of the President of the Congress, João Paulo
Cunha, visiting José Rainha (a leader of the MST) in prison?

TB: Rainha and his wife are political prisoners.  They are in prison
because they challenged the sacrosanct land ownership of the Pontal
(located in the western part of the state of São Paulo).  And by the way,
the landowners took all of the land in that area illegally.  I was
interviewed by a German reported who asked how can we have political
prisoners under Lula.  It is our judicial system which is still
anti-reform.  We are within our rights when we organize, but some little
judge, or big judge, considers us to be an illegal gang.  There are various
ways to interpret the law, but one thing should be clear: in the last 11
years there have been 976 rural workers assassinated, including adolescents
and children.  To date, there have only been 56 trials, and only 7
convictions.  Of these seven, two are at-large.  So out of nearly 1,000
murders, only 5 are in prison.  No further comment necessary.

JB: How do you compare John Paul II with the times of the Vatican Council
II?  Has Liberation Theology died?

TB: The changes have shown the importance of the pope.  The Catholic Church
depends 99.9% on the pope.  The current pope is a Pole who struggled
against communism.  He is from a very closed, clerical, masculine,
structure church.  When we were beginning to open up, he came in and forced
us backwards.  Anything that had to do with liberation processes
suffered.  Obviously, Liberation Theology fits in this category.  On the
other hand, we can say that not absolutely everything depends on the
hierarchy.  There is something that impels us forward, the Spirit of God
who blows where it wills.  There is a living force, not only inside the
Church but throughout the whole world, which is on a liberation
journey.  The journey of women, of ecology, of the Earth.  We sense that
with or without the church this journey will move forward.  Authoritarian,
dominating ways will come to an end.

Source: Jornal do Brasil, Reporter Belisa Ribeiro
September 14, 2003


         - Brazil Liberates Planting of Genetically Modified Soy

After many meetings and polemics, the Provisional Measure that permits the
planting of genetically modified soy was signed on Thursday night,
September 25th.  The measure, valid for all of Brazil, left environmental
entities indignant with the government´s position.

Not even pressure from the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, and
other environmental organizations, was sufficient to impede the acting
president, José Alencar, from signing the Provisional Measure.  Conama
(National Environmental Council) approved a motion in support of the
Minister of the Environment´s position and another motion rejecting the
measure.

The motion was sent Thursday (September 25th) morning to the President´s
Palace via fax.  According to Francisco Iglesias of the Potiguá Friends of
Nature Association, and members of the council, Conama is against the
liberation of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) because there has not
been sufficient studies that prove their applicability and security.  "If
we are filled with doubt regarding the effects that GMOs could generate,
why approve the Provisional Measure?" questioned Iglesias.

For Iglesias, the government is approving the measure based on political
party principles that hurt national sovereignty.  He defends an
environmental impact study as a condition for any decision on GMOs.

The measure

The Provisional Measure which permits the planting of GMOs will apply to
the entire country, but limit the planting of genetically modified soy to
the 2003/04 harvest.  The genetically modified seeds not planted or
marketed by December 31, 2004, according to the Provisional Measure, will
have to be incinerated.  The farmers also will have to sign terms of
commitment, responsibility and adjustment of conduct to guarantee that the
planting follow norms established by the government.

Among the anticipated norms is one that prohibits farmers from marketing
genetically modified seeds in states other than those in which they were
produced.  This item, in practice, limits planting to Rio Grande do Sul.

The Provisional Measure also prohibits planting of genetically modified soy
in conservation units and environmentally protected areas and on indigenous
lands.

Farmers who do not follow the directives of the Provisional Measure will
pay a fine of R$16,000, according to Law 10.688 of 2003 which regularized
the planting of genetically modified soy in the 2002/03 harvest.  The rural
producers will have a deadline of 30 days to sign the agreement.  Farmers
who do not sign the document and do not follow the directives of the
Provisional Measure will be impeded from obtaining loans and financing from
official credit institutions, as well as impeded from having access to
fiscal benefits from the government.  In addition, producers who cause
damage to the environment or to third parties - by contamination due to the
crossing of genetically modified seeds - will be held responsible for
indemnification or total reparation.

According to Frei Sérgio Görgen, the provisional measure is completely
indefensible because it does not touch on questions like segregation,
tracking and labeling of genetically modified products, in addition to not
establishing controls over the residual percentage of glifosato permitted
in soy,  and gives no guarantees to the farmers who want to continue
planting conventional or organic soy.

For Frei Sérgio, the Ministry of Agriculture is being transformed by the
minister Roberto Rodrigues into an auxiliary arm of the interests of
Monsanto (company responsible for the genetically modified grains) in the
country.  He affirmed also that if the government does not  take
appropriate measures by the end of the year, the entire country will be
contaminated by GMOs.

Source: Adital
September 26, 2003


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