Brazil Amazon Violence Continues Despite Lula Pledge
Date: 08-Dec-05
Country: BRAZIL
Author: Andrew Hay
Two men accused of killing Dorothy Stang face trial on Friday. But human rights groups and government officials say contract killings of land rights activists are on the rise in the state of Para, where 73-year-old Stang was shot six times near the town of Anapu.
Activists say Lula has been slow to meet promises to redistribute land and stamp federal authority on areas in the Amazon where landholders rule with armed militias.
"The death threats, the assassinations the land invasions go on while promised land reforms aren't happening," said Henri des Roziers, a Catholic priest and human rights lawyer in Para.
Stang's murder focused world attention on battles to control lucrative areas of rainforest in Para, an area twice the size of France. The nun had vociferously opposed illegal loggers and ranchers encroaching on a government reserve.
In February, Lula deployed 4,000 troops to combat Para gunmen. The president also created environmental reserves, and pledged additional law enforcement to halt the advance of farmers and illegal loggers on the world's largest rain forest.
Human rights groups say gunmen hired by loggers and farmers have killed more than 770 peasants and land activists in the last 30 years.
State and federal police quickly tracked down two men and charged them with shooting Stang. They are to be tried in Para's state capital and face up to 30 years imprisonment.
18 ASSASSINATIONS THIS YEAR - RIGHTS GROUP
Two ranchers also were charged with ordering the crime and another man was accused of paying the gunmen. The three are now fighting their cases in Brazil's highest appeals courts.
Human rights activists suspect others behind Stang's killing are still on the loose because of the landowners' influence over local police.
It looked like things were changing in Para, where trials of gunmen and their masters are rare, killings usually go unsolved and deforestation levels are among the highest in the Amazon.
But Brazil's Pastoral Land Commission, a human rights group linked to the Catholic Church, recorded 18 assassinations of rural workers and human rights defenders in the state this year, compared with 15 in 2004.
The agrarian reform ministry said four Para murders through November were related to land violence, the same as for all of 2004.
"The state of Para and federal government have done very little to stop this," said Edisio Souto, president of the human rights commission of Brazil's bar association.
Brazil's government insists it acted appropriately. In Anapu it surveyed land claims to end landholders' fraudulent claims and register the rights of thousands of peasant families.
It says a 30 percent fall in 2004-2005 Amazon deforestation followed better environmental policing after Stang's killing.
"We have shown our commitment to rural workers," said Bruno Kempner, head of the federal land reform agency in the region where Stang was shot.
But activists say the cash-strapped government has left families vulnerable by not putting more federal police, environmental agents and land reform officials on the ground.
When a congressional probe into rural violence visited Para recently, landholders presented a report justifying Stang's killing as "legitimate defense of property," the inquiry's rapporteur, Lower House Deputy Joao Alfredo, said.
"There is still little to stop landholders acting with impunity," said Alfredo, a member of the Socialism and Liberty Party.
