Brazil Indian murders rise in land conflicts
By Raymond Colitt
BRASILIA, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Brazil's tribal Indians are being killed at the fastest rate in at least two decades in clashes with police, farmers and each other over scarce land and natural resources.
At least 76 indigenous people were killed in 2007, according to preliminary figures from the Indigenous Missionary Council of the Roman Catholic Church.
It is the highest number since the watchdog group began monitoring killings 20 years ago and is likely to rise as reports from outlying areas trickle in.
Many of the victims were killed for defending their ancestral lands, others for denouncing human rights abuses or corruption, and some due to drug-related conflicts.
"Farmers, loggers, drugs, and booze -- they're all encroaching on the Indian's traditional land and lifestyle," said council vice-president Roberto Liebgott.
"It's tragic that there is no room for the original inhabitants of this large country," said Liebgott, referring mainly to over-crowded reservations in the southwestern state of Mato Grosso do Sul, where most killings occurred.
Brazil's Indian population now numbers about 750,000. It is estimated there were several million when Portuguese explorers first landed in 1500 but slaughter, disease and enslavement cut their numbers drastically over the centuries.
Daniel Vasques, a Kaiowa Indian in the Amambai reservation in Mato Grosso do Sul, said landowners are trying to stop Indians from claiming farms they consider part of their ancestral lands.
"They hire gunmen in Paraguay, who disappear across the border after a hit," Vasques said by telephone.
In January last year, 70-year-old spiritual healer Xurete Lopes was shot dead by private security guards during a land occupation. Six months later, a gunman killed another member of the same tribe, the council said.
GHETTO-LIKE RESERVATIONS
Vasques says he has received death threats for denouncing a corruption scheme in which officials of the government's Indian agency Funai received bribes to permit the sale of alcohol and drugs in the reservation.
A low tolerance for such drugs and despair in the ghetto-like reservations often leads to violent clashes among Indians as well.
Many big landowners say Indians are an obstacle to progress. They blame the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for encouraging land invasions by granting Indians historical rights to their ancestral lands.
"Indians don't want the land, they want to be white men," said Gino Ferreira, head of the main farmers' association in the agricultural frontier town of Dourados.
"If the government thinks land is the solution, it should buy a big chunk and resettle them there to stop this legal uncertainty that hurts our production," Ferreira said.
In northern Maranhao state, Indians live in large reservations but cannot protect themselves against intruders.
Last October, 60-year-old Tome Guajajara was shot dead in a skirmish with loggers who illegally cut wood in an Indian reserve. Police and Funai ignored previous warnings, said Humberto Capucci, a Catholic missionary in the region.
"The Indians live in Maranhao's last forest with commercial timber -- it's a powder keg," he said by telephone.
In the Amazon forest fewer Indians inhabit larger reservations. But even there conflicts are growing over natural resources.
In 2004, 150 warriors of the Cintas Largas (Long Belts) tribe in the southwestern Amazon killed 29 wildcat miners prospecting for diamonds in their reservation. (Editing by Angus MacSwan and Kieran Murray)
BRASILIA, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Brazil's tribal Indians are being killed at the fastest rate in at least two decades in clashes with police, farmers and each other over scarce land and natural resources.
At least 76 indigenous people were killed in 2007, according to preliminary figures from the Indigenous Missionary Council of the Roman Catholic Church.
It is the highest number since the watchdog group began monitoring killings 20 years ago and is likely to rise as reports from outlying areas trickle in.
Many of the victims were killed for defending their ancestral lands, others for denouncing human rights abuses or corruption, and some due to drug-related conflicts.
"Farmers, loggers, drugs, and booze -- they're all encroaching on the Indian's traditional land and lifestyle," said council vice-president Roberto Liebgott.
"It's tragic that there is no room for the original inhabitants of this large country," said Liebgott, referring mainly to over-crowded reservations in the southwestern state of Mato Grosso do Sul, where most killings occurred.
Brazil's Indian population now numbers about 750,000. It is estimated there were several million when Portuguese explorers first landed in 1500 but slaughter, disease and enslavement cut their numbers drastically over the centuries.
Daniel Vasques, a Kaiowa Indian in the Amambai reservation in Mato Grosso do Sul, said landowners are trying to stop Indians from claiming farms they consider part of their ancestral lands.
"They hire gunmen in Paraguay, who disappear across the border after a hit," Vasques said by telephone.
In January last year, 70-year-old spiritual healer Xurete Lopes was shot dead by private security guards during a land occupation. Six months later, a gunman killed another member of the same tribe, the council said.
GHETTO-LIKE RESERVATIONS
Vasques says he has received death threats for denouncing a corruption scheme in which officials of the government's Indian agency Funai received bribes to permit the sale of alcohol and drugs in the reservation.
A low tolerance for such drugs and despair in the ghetto-like reservations often leads to violent clashes among Indians as well.
Many big landowners say Indians are an obstacle to progress. They blame the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for encouraging land invasions by granting Indians historical rights to their ancestral lands.
"Indians don't want the land, they want to be white men," said Gino Ferreira, head of the main farmers' association in the agricultural frontier town of Dourados.
"If the government thinks land is the solution, it should buy a big chunk and resettle them there to stop this legal uncertainty that hurts our production," Ferreira said.
In northern Maranhao state, Indians live in large reservations but cannot protect themselves against intruders.
Last October, 60-year-old Tome Guajajara was shot dead in a skirmish with loggers who illegally cut wood in an Indian reserve. Police and Funai ignored previous warnings, said Humberto Capucci, a Catholic missionary in the region.
"The Indians live in Maranhao's last forest with commercial timber -- it's a powder keg," he said by telephone.
In the Amazon forest fewer Indians inhabit larger reservations. But even there conflicts are growing over natural resources.
In 2004, 150 warriors of the Cintas Largas (Long Belts) tribe in the southwestern Amazon killed 29 wildcat miners prospecting for diamonds in their reservation. (Editing by Angus MacSwan and Kieran Murray)
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