Number 78, May. 13, 1993

INDIGENOUS ISSUES

- Indigenous Council says Brazilian government will not demarcate land.

(The following report was written by the Indigenous Missionary Council-CIMI)

Despite the fact that the Brazilian Constitution determined that all indigenous lands in the country are to be demarcated by October, 1993, the government refuses to fulfill its obligations. Justice Minister Mauricio Correa, under whose jurisdiction is the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), will not sign any demarcation order for indigenous land that may have been invaded. He alleges that the indemnity payments for the invaders would increase federal spending. In regards to areas invaded by settlements, Correa states that demarcation would be "a problem" for the invading families.

The government's decision makes the executing of the Constitution more difficult. There are 510 indigenous areas in Brazil. Of these, only 272 are demarcated, 109 have begun demarcations, and no provisions have been made for 129 others.

The arguments presented by the minister have no legal foundation. The declaration of limits of indigenous lands is an act that can only be realized by the Minister of Justice and involves few costs. This declaration is needed in order for the demarcations to occur. It is a constitutional decision which recognizes the original right of the Indians to the lands they occupy.

The government itself is responsible for any financial difficulties. In April 1992, FUNAI requested US$50 million for demarcations for 1993. However, the government of former president Collor put only 10% of this amount in the federal budget. The present government could modify this proposal, but it has not.

By stating that he will not sign any demarcation order for invaded lands, Minister Correa prevents the State from fulfilling its duty in regards to the indigenous peoples. The Brazilian Constitution says that the possession and occupation of indigenous lands by non-Indians has no validity.

Once again, the indigenous peoples of Brazil run the risk of not having their rights guaranteed. Contrary to Minister Correa's statements, demarcation resolves conflicts between Indians and the invaders of their lands. To delay demarcation may only increase the violence agaisnt indigenous peoples.

- Ecological disasters affecting Indians in the Amazon.

There has been grave environmental damage and consequently, severe harm done to the indigenous communities of the Waimiri-Atroari Indians of the River Alalau region, caused by the five dams that burst in the Amazon area, on April 29th.

The dam-bursts occurred in the Pitinga mining area, provoking the spread of large quantities of cassiterite and other polluting materials into the River Alalau, which is vital for the livelihood of the Indians. The water dams that occupied an area of 2.5 million square meters, were reduced to 1,300 tons of mud, that were washed down river by the current.

Ecological, indigenous and human rights entities fear that this mud contained radioactive material, since the extraction of cassiterite is associated with the mining of columbium, and niobium. In the region of Pitinga, in the interior of the State of Amazonia, 140 dams were constructed for use in the mining of cassiterite.

One mineral company alone, called "Taboca Mining", has already destroyed 250 million square meters of forest. The first accidents of this nature with dams occurred in 1989, and this one brings the number to four.

- Shots exchanged between Indians and miners.

A recent incident between Indians and miners on the river Icana, in the region of Sao Gabriel de Cachoeira, Amazonia, almost ended in tragedy. In an effort to detain a boat carrying 20 people upriver, leaders of the indigenous community of Assuncao exchanged fire with the occupants of the boat.

According to Roberval Miranda, president of the communities along the river Icana, the incident occurred around 10 P.M.. "There was an exchange of fire because the people on the boat refused to stop when they were passively told to do so by the indigenous leaders", said Miranda. The occupants of the boat were led by a Major JoFo Kummel Neto.

In a letter sent to Funai (the National Indian Foundation) and to the municipal authorities, the indigenous leaders requested that the traffic of all boats carrying miners , including major Kummel, Ronil Otero and another man known as "Sabugo", be stopped.

"Since last year we have been denouncing the invasion of indian territories, by miners, but, so far, nothing has been done about it and I don't know how much more we can take", said Braz Oliveira, coordinator of the Federation of Indigenous Organizations on the river Negro.

LAND ISSUES

- Landless movement protest against reports in the "Folha" and "Veja".

The National Directory of the Movement for Landless Rural Workers (MST) has just sent letters to the editors of the "Folha de Sao Paulo" newspaper and the magazine "Veja", protesting the treatment given to the MST in recent reports. According to the movement, both the newspaper and the magazine, manipulated information in articles on the struggle of the MST for agrarian reform.

The MST took objection to the way these news organs use the expression "invasion" instead of "occupation" of land, to refer to the type of action the rural workers are taking in their fight for land reforms in Brazil. "Invasion", says the letter, "gives the impression of taking possession by force for illicit use or economic exploitation. We occupy the land to be able to work and survive".

In their letter to the Folha, the MST, define themselves as "a mass movement that is autonomous in relation to all other organizations", with "a grassroot and trade union character", and articulating for agrarian reform with the Unified Confederation of Workers of Brazil (CUT).

In the case of "Veja", the MST protest against the "unethical, dishonest and untruthful way" that the magazine treats the Movement, in a report entitled "The Last Extremists". In pointing out that, in their view, Veja "has no commitment whatsoever with producing impartial information and even less with the truth", the MST state that the magazine fail to denounce the fact that 1% of the landowners in Brazil possess 45% of all the land" and that "there's 80 million hectares of idle land in the hands of the government and the wealthy landowners".

The movement add that Veja also failed to inform that, within the last ten years, more than 1200 rural workers have been assassinated in Brazil, without one murderer or persons responsible for the crime being brought to justice.

- CPT report on rural violence and slavery.

In their report on rural violence in Brazil, the Catholic Church's Commission for Land (CPT) detected 18 cases of slave labor, in 1992, involving 16,442 people.

"It shows that the practice of absolute exploitation and denial of basic human rights is not exclusively restricted to the 'less developed' areas of Brazil. Regions like the South Central part of Brazil also have cases of slave labor", says the document.

Later in the document the CPT states, "The practice of slave labor denies the principle of two people being equal before the law and capable of freely entering a work contract. By denying freedom, the individual is deprived of his own personhood, his juridical rights and his citizenship". "The mobilization of civil society", concludes the chapter on slavery, in the CPT's report, "is absolutely necessary to force the State to assume its responsibilities in this area and demand that it take firm action against this hideous practice".

- Agrarian reform threatened with setback.

The National Congress has yet to analyze the vetoes that the President of the Republic made to the project for Agrarian Reform. But even before the project is debated again, one of the federal deputies for the PRN party, Edmar Moreira, wants to re-establish two of the items that were vetoed by the president: one which delays the expropriation of property for 2 years and the other that restricts expropriation to the degree of utility of the land.

To avoid that the project be made to benefit only the wealthy landowners, the Socio-Economic Institute (Inesc) is working with the progressive politicians to suspend Moreira's amendments. Right now, the coordinator of the commission on the land reform project, Odelmo Leao, also from the PRN party, is trying to rush Moreira's amendments through Congress, so that land reform in Brazil is once again confined to just words on paper.

- Local politicians re-affirm commitment to agrarian reform.

Local mayors, city and county councilors from all over Brazil, participating in a national seminar, promoted by the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), two weeks ago in Sao Paulo, signed a letter called the "Letter of Sao Paulo", re-affirming their commitment to the struggle for agrarian reform in Brazil.

The letter states: "Because of the worsening crisis that afflicts the country and that manifests itself in a picture of social degradation, where, out of 145 million Brazilians, 80 million are classed as poor and 32 million others considered as beggars, we mayors, vice mayors and councilors, meeting in Sao Paulo to discuss "Municipalities and Agrarian Reform", wish to re-affirm our commitment to the struggle for agrarian reform, as a fundamental instrument in the battle against hunger and misery.

Producing food and jobs, and generating the municipal economy, are possible, in a short space of time, with the implementation of land reforms. Studies made by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations show that in Brazil, the monthly earnings of a family settled on the land is roughly 3.7 minimum salaries. This result, when compared to the average salary of low-income families in the cities and the rural areas where there is no agrarian reform, is quite significant.

Thus, we councilors, mayors, vice mayors and municipal secretaries, meeting on the 3rd and 4th of May of 1993, conclude that the present situation of hunger and poverty can be reverted with agrarian reform, through the efforts of the municipal authorities, and with the help of the State and Federal powers and civil society".

WOMEN IN BRAZIL

- International tribunal in Viena to judge crimes against women.

On June 15th, in Viena, during the World Conference on Human Rights, feminist organizations and movements from Brazil will participate in a International Tribunal to judge crimes committed against women. The Tribunal is being organized by the Global Leadership Center for Women and the International Women's Tribunal, together with other feminist groups.

The principal objective of the Tribunal is to get gender-related crimes, considered as a violation of human rights and in this sense, to create and perfect mechanisms and procedures to deal with these violations. Sex related violence is understood to mean, any form of violence that perturbs the dichotomy between men and women and which debases women and everything related to the feminine.

According to the organizing entities, this type of violence is fostered and worsened by war and extreme poverty, but these are not its main causes. During the Tribunal, cases of sex related violence in war-torn countries and relatively peaceful ones, will be presented, as well as cases from both the developed and less-developed nations.

The Tribunal will treat the subject under five main headings:

1. Human right violations of women in the family, including sexual violence caused by husbands, friends or acquaintances, incestual sexual abuses, domestic violence and homicide due to dowries, female infanticide and the practice of abandoning female babies;

2. War crimes against women, with special reference to ex-Yugoslavia, Somalia, Peru and India;

3. Violations against the health of women, dealing with the area of women's health, sexuality and child-bearing and including a treatment on human reproduction and abortion. Also under the same theme, the question of exceptional women, Aids, forced motherhood, obligatory heterosexuality, the mutilation of female genitalia and medical and hospital violations;

4. Violations of the socio-economic rights of women, including violations caused by the so-called structural adjustments (linked to the neo-liberal economic ideology), land and agricultural policies, employment, financial credit, food and family assistance.

5. Violations against the equal participation of women in the social, political and economic fields, inequality in the process of decision-making, as well as the political persecution and repression of feminists and the prejudices related to the feminist question.

The tribunal will have six judges, chosen for their sensibility and work in this area.

HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES

- Human rights group set up data-bank on violence in Brazil.

A national data-bank on criminal violence in Brazil will be installed in 1994, to serve the whole country. The group responsible for this will be the National Movement for Human Rights (MNDH), founded in 1982, and which congregates more than 250 organizations from around the country.

Already a pilot scheme has been implemented in the Northern region, based in Manaus, (Amazonia) and another in the Northeast based in Olinda (Pernambuco). Details of the project on a national level were decided over the weekend, at a meeting between representatives of the National Council and Secretariat of the MNDH, delegates from the eight regions of the movement and technicians from the computer communications area.

With the setting up of the data-bank, the MNDH hope to deepen their knowledge of the situation of violence in Brazil and be better equipped to fight its causes and consequences.

- Impunity is embedded into the system.

The coordinator of the National Movement for Human Rights in Brazil, Valeria Britto, told AGEN that "impunity in Brazil is embedded into the structure of the State".

"The government, in general," she says, "shows no political willingness to tackle the question of justice and security head on. The lack of public policies in this area is what guarantees impunity. The fact that there's no punishment for 'white collar' crimes, the failure to bring gunmen and those who order killings to trial, the weak efforts of the tribunals to deal with the drug and illegal gambling mobs, the involvement of the police forces with criminal elements, as constantly denounced by the newspapers, are the permanent causes of continual impunity. These elements generate fear in the population and a lack of confidence in the security forces".

- Brazilian NGOs to debate World Conference on Human Rights.

Representatives of the Brazilian Non-Governmental Organizations that were invited to participate at the World Conference on Human Rights, to be held in Viena, in June, will meet in Brasilia, on the 20 and 21 of May, at the headquarters of the Federal Council of the Lawyers Association of Brazil. They will debate the theme of the Conference and draw up a document on the question of human rights in Brazil.

The representatives will also study and evaluate the following proposals on human rights that have come from the continental and world preparatory meetings: ways to overcome human right violations today; the question of the rights of women and black people; urban and rural violence; the relationship between human rights, development and democracy, with emphasis on the role of the NGOs and grassroot movements and North/South relationships; and an analysis into specific issues like racism, ethnic violence and religious intolerance.

The entities that will participate at the meeting include the National Movement for Human Rights (MNDH), the Lawyers Association of Brazil (OAB), the Justice and Peace Commission of the Archdiocese of Sao Paulo, the Santos Dias Human Rights Organization, the Legal Aid Support Group for Grassroot Organizations (GAJOP), from Olinda, the Brazil Central Institute (IBRACE) from Goiania, the Center for the Defense of Human Rights of Caxias (Mato Grosso), the University of Sao Paulo's Center of Studies of Violence (NEV/SP), the Catholic Church's Pastoral Commission for Land (CPT), the National Movement for Street Children and the Ecumenical News Agency (AGEN).

Two preparatory meetings have already taken place. One on April 14th, between the NGOs and the other, the following day, at the initiative of the Brazilian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Fernando Henrique Cardoso. At this last meeting, there was an exchange of ideas between the Minister and the NGOs, on the question of human rights in Brazil and the Conference itself. The NGOs representatives were surprised with the awareness shown by the federal authorities on social issues and problems, and the frankness with which they discussed the difficulties of the Executive Powers to control the repressive organs belonging to the State itself (especially the police forces).

Another preparatory meeting, on a continental level, will be held in Quito, Equador, next month. The organizing committee of the conference estimate that 180 governments will be represented at the World Conference, with 500 NGOs and approximately 2 thousand journalists.

POLITICS

- Popular mobilization needed in constitutional revision.

The outcome of the revision of Brazil's Constitution will depend on the correlation of political forces both inside and outside Congress, says Maria Jose Jaime of the the Institute of Socio-Economic Studies(INESC). Maria also states that an early start in the 1994 presidential race must not superimpose itself over the revision process.

INESC supports maintaining the date of the constitutional revision, scheduled for October 6, 1993. It believes that advancing the date would leave little time for debate. Delaying the revision until 1995 would transfer the revision for the next Congress-a move which could immobilize the new government, and the country, for at least a year.

Some progressives fear that an ample revision, under the pretext of "modernizing" the Constitution, could take away some rights won in the current document. While recognizing this risk, Maria notes that "we cannot deny the precocious aging of our Constitution in various Chapters. It was elaborated when the echoes of the dictatorship were still very strong." The Constitution, she says, needs to be revised in order to keep up with the changes in the world these past five years. "In looking at the social situation in Brazil, dramatically aggravated in these years, it is necessary to elaborate and apply with urgency policies that end the process of excluding the majority of the population."

According to Maria, preparing for the revision means that the various sectors of civil society should share in the task of "exercising a legitimate and needed pressure on Congress. Each Chapter of the document must be re-studied and the elaboration of new proposals must come after ample debate between entities and Congress. This work must be done to counter "right-wing sectors and those linked to large capital interests, who have set the scene in Congress for the revision."

"It is necessary to accept the challenge of October: let go of the superfluous; guarantee social rights; and look at such themes as reform of the State, which should become an instrument of public service."

SOCIAL AND RACIAL ISSUES IN BRAZIL

- Movement to combat hunger publish pamphlet.

The Citizen's Action against Hunger, Poverty and in Favor of Life is promoting their booklet, all over Brazil, about how to form State and Municipal Committees to combat hunger. The booklet deals with content and methodology to orient groups on how to organize effective action to help Brazil's 32 million people who go hungry daily. According to the Citizen's Action group, 70% of the national population are living in precarious conditions.

The work of the group is a continuation of the Movement for Ethics in Politics, formed last year by various entities, including the Lawyers Association of Brazil (OAB), the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) and the Brazilian Press Association (ABI), to fight for a more moral political system in Brazil. After the impeachment of the Brazilian President, Fernando Collor de Mello, in which the Movement played a decisive role, the priority now is the fight against poverty and corruption.

- Special police stations proposed to deal with racial crimes.

A proposal made by the government of Sao Paulo State to set up a special police station to deal with crimes of racism, is being discussed by entities representing the Black community. While some groups welcomed the idea, others are skeptical about it.

AGEN talked to Solimar Carneiro, of the SOS Racism Movement, who said, "It will be one more instrument in the fight against discrimination. At least it is hoped that in a police station like that, we won't have to put up with the traditional objections about registering racial crimes as racism. If the police officers get the proper training, as they do for Special Female Police Stations, the results could be very satisfactory".

On the other hand, Joao Militao, of the Lawyers Association of Brazil (OAB - Sao Paulo region), stated that, "Fascism in Brazil is strongest in the political, police and upper class circles. The State, through its public agents, constantly refusesto implement effective and permanent policies to combat discrimination, and the State is proposing to create this service?".

Militao feels that it's an exercise in marketing and concludes that, "it's just another attempt to fool the population, especially the 'Afro-Brazilians'. The practice of exclusion, discrimination and racial violence has been institutionalized in Brazil and this permeates all public and private activities".

HEALTH ISSUES

- Health system in Brazil, ready to collapse.

The Medical Workers Union of Sao Paulo (Simesp) called a press conference on May 6th, to explain to the public the reasons for their strike. They blamed the Government of Sao Paulo State for "the lamentable state of the health system", and took the opportunity to announce a new "call-in" service for patients who wish to denounce bad treatment and hospital abuses.

Simesp president, Euripides Carvalho, informed journalists that "60% of the eight thousand doctors working in State hospitals and 25% of the 7,500 doctors with the municipal service, adhered to the strike. The doctors didn't just stay at home, but were on hand in the hospitals to attend emergency cases".

Doctors working with the State decided to continue their protest, while those belonging to the municipal health system were to evaluate their situation later in the day.

Carvalho explained that "the population of Sao Paulo was fully conscious of the disastrous state of the health system and the precarious working conditions that doctors faced". "There are 3000 hospital beds lying idle in the city of Sao Paulo", he said, "because there aren't enough doctors and nurses working in the State and municipal hospitals. If used, the beds would benefit over one million people". The city hospitals and health centers are understaffed, with a deficiency of 1000 doctors (So far this year, 900 doctors have resigned).

"Because of the poor salary", concludes Carvalho, "it's impossible to contract others, with the result that the poorer section of the population suffers most".

One of the directors of the Union, Tito Nery, accused the government of being totally unconcerned about the health necessities of the poor. "The government", he said, "didn't respond to any of the health workers demands because they intend to hand the public health service over to the private sector. With what the State government spent on one night's ceremony to celebrate the Latin American Memorial, in Sao Paulo, they could have contracted 2,550 new doctors". Nery concluded by saying that "the municipal government liberated only 25% of the health budget (the area that suffered most cut backs), while spending a fortune on works that weren't so important, like the tunnel under the river Pinheiros, which only benefits the wealthier classes".

After 7 days of strike action, 19 hospitals in the State are almost at a standstill. The doctors are seeking a monthly salary of around US$ 1000 and monthly readjustments in keeping with the inflation rate (at present running at 28% per month). Last month, the monthly salary for doctors, at the beginning of their careers, and working a 20-hour week, for the State was US$ 200 and US$ 600 for the Municipal doctors.

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