Shawn Blore
Journalist
sb@shawnblore.com
www.shawnblore.com
Tel:(55) 21-8102-4706
Shawn Blore
Journalist
sb@shawnblore.com
www.shawnblore.com
Tel:(55) 21-8102-4706
Shawn Blore
Journalist
sb@shawnblore.com
www.shawnblore.com
Tel:(55) 21-8102-4706
BRAZIL KILLERS MAY GET IMMUNITY
By Shawn Blore | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
|
|
Indian suspects in last month's massacre
may be protected by the country's Constitution.
RIO DE JANEIRO – Federal police surrounding
the Roosevelt Indian Reserve in Brazil's
Amazon rain forest have developed a
list
of 12 Cinta Larga Indians they say
took part
in the massacre of 29 diamond miners
last
month.
But the suspects may never face jail
time.
Under the Brazilian Constitution, Indians
from isolated communities can be judged
incapable
of understanding the law and are thus
immune
from responsibility for breaking it.
The fact that killers may go unpunished
has
rekindled debate here over indigenous
rights.
The same laws that grant immunity to
Indians
also relegates them to second-class
citizenship.
Observers say it's time that native
Brazilians
be given the same rights - and have
the same
responsibilities - as the rest of the
country's
population.
"It's what we call ... a [Trojan]
horse,"
says anthropologist Alcida Ramos, referring
to the law that keeps Indians immune
from
prosecution but also makes them wards
of
the state. "Yes, it affords protection
in a few situations, but minority status
also denies them many of the rights
of other
Brazilians."
Since the April 7 massacre, federal
law-enforcement
officials, supported by the Brazilian
Army
and Air Force, have kept the reserve
- 575,000
acres of isolated, pristine rain forest
in
the state of Rondônia - under a virtual
siege.
Checkpoints have been installed at
all access
roads and navigable rivers out of the
reserve.
The Cinta Larga territory is said to
contain
one of South America's richest diamond
deposits.
Mechanized mineral extraction is illegal
on Indian territory in Brazil, but
since
diamonds were discovered in 2000, thousands
of miners have flooded Cinta Larga
lands,
despite sporadic attempts by federal
police
and the Brazilian Federal Indian Agency
(FUNAI)
to have them removed.
In 2003, the Cinta Larga themselves
began
mining in defiance of Brazilian law,
often
with technical assistance from non-Indian
miners. Disputes over the mining proceeds
have been common, and according to
federal
police may have been at the root of
the April
7 killings.
The agents assigned to the case have
interviewed
dozens of miners who survived the attack,
using their testimony to compile the
suspect
list. Police say they have so far avoided
entering tribal territory to apprehend
suspects,
both to prevent further conflict with
the
Cinta Larga and to preclude a manhunt
in
the vast and inhospitable rain forest.
"What we would like is for them
to turn
themselves over," says Marcos
Aurélio
Moura, federal police superintendent,
who
has been negotiating with the Cinta
Larga
through intermediaries from FUNAI.
But once suspects are in custody, obtaining
convictions could be complicated by
the Brazilian
Constitutional and criminal code, even
if
police and federal prosecutors determine
there is enough evidence to press charges.
No contact until the 1960s
Under a 1993 legal reform, says FUNAI
official
Luiz Soares, isolated peoples can have
immunity
from prosecution. The determination
is made
by a criminal-court judge, with the
aid of
a professional anthropologist, using
criteria
such as the accused's ability to speak
Portuguese
- the official language of Brazil -
and his
degree of exposure to Brazilian culture
and
society.
The Cinta Larga tribe only came into
contact
with the outside world in the 1960s.
The
tribe numbers about 1,300 individuals,
about
half of whom speak Portuguese. According
to Mr. Soares, the Cinta Larga's relative
isolation argues in favor of their
immunity,
in the event that a tribal member does
get
charged.
"It's a right they have under
Brazilian
law, and I would certainly push to
see that
they make use of that right,"
he says.
Expanded indigenous rights swept through
South America the 1990s. New constitutions
were enshrined in Colombia in 1991,
Peru
in 1993, Bolivia in 1994, and Ecuador
in
1997.
In varying degrees, these new constitutions
all give aboriginals more rights over
land
and provide some recognition of communal
ownership of resources. But only Brazil
allows
for the lenient treatment of Indians
in criminal
proceedings.
And here there are significant drawbacks
to Indians' special status. It has
prevented
them from entering into contracts,
starting
businesses, and in many cases even
exercising
control over their traditional lands
and
resources, says Ms. Ramos. Instead,
the resources
of Brazilian Indians are often put
under
the management of FUNAI.
"On balance, I would say minority
status
has not served Brazil's Indians well,"
says Ms. Ramos.
The potential immunity from prosecution
for
the killings has engendered a backlash.
In
Espigão d'Oeste, the town closest to
the
Cinta Larga reserve, one Indian was
taken
hostage by angry miners in the days
after
the massacre. The man was freed only
after
police intervened. The rest of the
town's
small Indian population has since fled
back
to the forest, according to mayor Lucia
Tereza
Santos.
Indian immunity has long aroused resentment
among rural people in Brazil, particularly
in the mining industries. Visitors
to the
Brazilian interior are often told by
locals
to steer clear of Indian land. Indians
have
been known to hold visitors for ransom
or
arbitrarily confiscate their belongings,
they say.
Immunity may not be granted
Immunity, however, is not a given.
It is
usually refused by judges, according
to Soares.
Attempts to set up parallel tribunals
to
judge Indians according to their own
tribal
laws and traditions have so far proved
too
controversial, he says.
Once the government removes its cordon
around
the Cinta Larga lands, Ms. Santos says
the
miners will return, and the illegal
mining
will resume, rekindling tensions.
The way to bring peace to the region,
she
says, is to give the Cinta Larga the
legal
right to mine on their territory, then
regulate
and control it. Under the Brazilian
Constitution,
however, the only way to give the Cinta
Larga
the right to mine would be through
the passage
of a special act of congress.
Shawn Blore is a Freelance Correspondent
based in Rio de Janeiro