Organizations
protest against police action
Adital,
March 28, 2008
On
Monday, March 31, the Network of Communities and Movements against
Violence and the No More Torture Group organized a protest in front of
the Court of Justice in Rio de Janeiro, to seek a verdict in the
hearing on the threat made by Edivaldo Camelo, the colonel of the
Military Police, to Patrícia de Oliviera, an
activist. The protest will be at 1:30 p.m. to coincide with
the hearing. The protest comes from an action that occurred
on October 17, 2007, when residents of the shantytown,
Providência, were protesting against the violence and abuse
that they suffer at the hands of the police, mostly from the Police
Group in Special Areas. The protesters were leaving
Providência and going in the direction of the station
“Central do Brasil.” When they
arrived, a wall of police blocked their way, saying that there is a law
that prohibits protests in this space.
At that time, Patrícia de Oliveira asked the police to
present a copy of the law. The colonel of the Military Police
then spoke threateningly to Patrícia. She went up,
accompanied with witness, to the fourth Police Delegation
(Praça da República) and registered a complaint
of the threat from the police.
“The attitude of this colonel, given the position he holds,
is extremely serious and is a clear example of the intimidation by
violence against the popular movements and the activists, as well as
against the poor in general,” said the Network.
The complaint that Patrícia registered against the colonel,
who is the commander of the Fifth Battalion of the Military Police
(Praça da Harmonia), started an investigatory proceeding and
a lawsuit concerning the threat in the Second Special Criminal Court of
the Rio de Janeiro.
The Network interprets the threat suffered by Patrícia as a
fact indicating “that, actually, the dictatorship continues,
under different forms and processes. The shantytown
of Providência, whose residents were protesting on that day
of October 17, met with the permanent occupation by soldiers of the
Army.”
The occupation [by the soldiers] has as pretext the protection of a
work that is being undertaken in the community. But the
Network complained that numerous cases of abuse, due to this occupation
by the army . . . .
Armed Militias assassinate a landless
person in the Paraná
Comissão
Pastoral da Terra, March 31, 2008
The National Coordination of the Pastoral Commission on the Land (CPT)
is making public its indignation caused by the most heinous
assassination which occurred on the night of March 30 . . . in the city
of Ortigueira, Paraná.
Around 7:30 p.m., two hooded men broke into the home of Eli Dallemole,
42 years old, leader of the Movement of Rural Landless Workers
(MST). He was murdered him in front of his family; his wife
and three children.
He was leading the encampment Terra Livre, on the
Compramil farm, in Ortiguera (near the toll station of the Brazilian
highway 376), occupied since 2003. He and the others were
there for more than two years, repeatedly receiving death
threats. On March 8 of last year, approximately 15 gunmen
terrorized 35 families occupying the area and burned all of their
belongings. Children were threaten and roughed up, women and
men were beaten and stripped to their underwear. The families
that were expelled have been taken in by neighboring settlements.
After the attack [on March 8, 2007], seven gunmen were arrested at the
scene by the police and taken to the Ortigueira police station. After
that, the death threats against Eli only increased.
The landless families had already reported activity of armed militias
in the region, and there have been further reports to the Special
Secretariat of Human Rights of the Federal Government and to the police.
The National Coordination of the CPT demands the immediate
investigation of this crime and that an example be made of those
responsible. It is unacceptable that in the twenty-first
century such barbarous methods are still used against the rural poor
and that the land-owners recruit and maintain private militias to
protect their properties [in a manner that is unconstitutional].
The leadership of the CPT is ensuring that it shows its solidarity with
the family of Eli and to the MST. In spite of all of that has
happened we are certain that the blood of Eli was not spilled in
vain. It is going to be a seed of a new land, since the words
of God directed at Cain echoes in our ears: “I hear the blood
of your brother, crying out of the land to me.” (Gn 4:10).
Organizations denounce lies
about the Water Diversion Project of the São
Francisco River
Adital, April 1,
2008
Popular organizations are taking April Fool’s Day to confront
the lies propagated by the government about the water diversion project
of the São Francisco River. The activities seek to
undermine the speeches of the representatives of the government about
the benefits that millionaire-dollar work is going to bring to
Brazilians.
In São Paulo (SP), more than a thousand people are planned
to participate in the public act at the Casa de Portugal, with the
presence of Bishop Luiz Flávio Cappio, who fasted for 24
days against the diversion project and for initiatives of
sustainability in the Semi-Arid Region.
Beyond the capital of the state of São Paulo, there will be
protests in João Pessoa, Paraíba and in
Própria, Sergipe, which will be joined by protests in
Alagoas, Sergipe, Pernambuco and Bahia the region down river
of the São Francisco.
In Minas Gerais acts are planned for in Belo Horizonte, in
Praça Sete, where protestors will come with a doll of
President Lula and will handout pamphlets. In the mining
cities of Pirapora and Viçosa, besides students, the public
acts will involve hundreds of people called from popular organizations
and traditional communities.
In Bahia, the organizers will begin in the city of Guanambi, with more
than a hundred people passing through streets with banners and
distributing propaganda that quotes phrases from Lula, Geddel Vieira
(Integração National) and Ciro Gomes
(deputado). Hundreds of people are waiting in the city of
Casa Nova, where agrarian conflicts caused by expansion of
agro-businesses are threatening the life of more than 300 families.
Conflicts return to threaten
indigenous of Raposa Serra do Sol
Adital, April 1,
2008
The situation in the community of Surumu, in the Indigenous Land Raposa
Serra do Sol (Roraima) is extremely tense. The bridges that
link the town to the capital, Boa Vista, are closed by employees of the
rice farmer Paulo César Quartieiro. All of this
started because of the decision of federal agencies, after three years,
to fulfill the order of the Court and take away the land Raposa Serra
do Sol from the non-indigenous.
Yesterday afternoon, Paulo César Quartieiro was arrested,
after a conflict with the Federal Police, but that night he was free
after making bail. The employees of the rice farmer organized
pickets and closed the federal highway, in the areas close to the
bridge over the river Cauamé in order to do recognizance on
the retaking of the non-indigenous lands.
Besides this, these employees went up to the community in Surumu and
burned the encampment on which some of the indigenous (of Raposa Serra
do Sol) were living. Today, the indigenous people were
meeting with the police, since they are frightened by the acts that
could still be ordered by the rice farmer.
The taking back of the Raposa Serra do Sol from non-indigenous was
instigated by the indigenous after a meeting with Ibama, the National
Agency of Waters (ANA Agência Nacional de
Águas), Funai, the Federal Police, the General Advocate of
the Union and Incra.
But the height of the violence against the indigenous communities began
still before this news; with the judgment of the Superior Electoral
Tribunal, ensuring the return of Quartiero to the post of mayor of the
city of Pacaraima.
In an interview with the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI
Conselho Indigenista Missionário), the coordination of the
Indigenous Council of Roraima said that Quarteiro used his term as the
mayor to interfere in the social organization of indigenous
communities. He was stripped of his rights by the Regional
Electoral Tribunal of Roraima in 2006.
HISTORY
For about 30 years, the indigenous of the region struggled for
recognition of the Raposa Serra do Sol as non-partitioned
land. This they won during the first term of President Lula
when he signed the decree of legal recognition of indigenous land in
April 15, 2005. Since the signing of the decree by the
president, three years ago, the Indians are still struggling to see
this put into effect, but always they encounter an obstacle.
The non-indigenous that invaded the area in the 90’s want the
demarcation of area to reduce the Indigenous Lands to little islands.
In the [disputed] area, there are several hectares of rice
plantations. Many of the rice farmers are not willing to
accept the compensation offered by the government. That they
are remaining in this area is one of the principal points of this
conflict.
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