IACHR requires Brazil to protect indigenous Yanomami and munduruku

Yanomami community in the northern Brazilian border with Venezuela. Its territory is invaded by thousands of gold prospectors who attack indigenous people, pollute rivers and other livelihoods, and destroy large areas of forest. Photo: Romeu Escanhoela / Public Photos

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WASHINGTON, 20 may 2021 (IPS) – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) urged the Brazilian State to protect the life, personal integrity, territories and natural resources of the Yanomami and Munduruku indigenous peoples, affected by the incursion of illegal mining.

The regional office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (Acnudh) joined the IACHR in a statement in which they expressed their “extreme concern over the acts of violence that have affected the Yanomami and Munduruku indigenous peoples.”

They indicated that on May 10 there was a confrontation in a Yanomami territory in Roraima, a state of the northern Amazon region of Brazil, “caused by illegal miners, who, according to public information, in the presence of girls and boys, opened fire on members of the community. Paliminú ”.

According to the IACHR, two children, ages one and five, were victims of the attack.

The president of the district indigenous health council in the area, Junior Hekurari, told local media that three illegal miners were killed in the attack and several were injured, including a Yanomami, although the police did not confirm the deaths.

In that area on the banks of the Uraricorera River, which runs near the border with Venezuela and is a tributary of the Branco, there are many illegal miners who exploit gold, and the indigenous people build barriers to prevent their passage and try to retain the material destined for the mines. of the invaders.

The Yanomami indigenous territory (an ethnic group also present in southern Venezuela) is formally a 9.4 million hectare reserve with an estimated 27,000 inhabitants, repeatedly invaded by “garimpeiros”, gold seekers, who could number up to 20,000 according to information collected by the IACHR.

On the other hand, the IACHR reported on March 25 an attack against the headquarters of the Munduruku Wakoborûn Women’s Association, in the city of Jacareacanga, in the southwest of the state of Pará, also northern and Amazonian.

He added that the Federal Public Ministry has issued urgent actions to the federal forces to stop the invasion of armed groups made up of illegal miners, without any response.

The text of the IACHR collected the words of a young Munduruku, who stated that “we see how our forests turn into large pools of mud. We see how the sources of our rivers are sedimenting and how their courses are deviating ”.

Likewise, “we see how the shadows of the trees disappear, how the fruits we collect diminish, and how the crystalline water of the Tapajós river, the igarapés (river arms) and the springs, becomes more cloudy every day. Finally, we see how the smoke from the fires darkens our evening ”.

The statement adds concern because the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies approved Bill 3729/2004 on May 13, which eases environmental requirements for agricultural and energy enterprises.

“If a law of this scope is enacted, the human rights of indigenous peoples and their territories, including those of the Yanomami and Munduruku peoples, will be even more impacted,” said the IACHR and Acnudh.

They are also concerned about a draft decree that would authorize the President of the Republic to denounce Convention 169 (rights of indigenous peoples) of the International Labor Organization, and about a bill that would release mining activities on indigenous lands.

The IACHR and Acnudh “remind the State that the unique relationship of existence between indigenous and tribal peoples and their territories has been widely recognized in international human rights law.”

Likewise, “the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples, recognized by international law, is closely related to the use and disposition of lands and territories, which generates specific obligations to the States in terms of protection.”

For all these reasons, “they urge the State of Brazil to fulfill its duty to protect the life, personal integrity, territories and natural resources of the Yanomami and Munduruku indigenous peoples.”

“This is necessary and urgent to put an end to the actions of invaders that aim to seize their natural resources and have meant the death of their members, the contamination of their sources of subsistence and the deforestation of large areas of their territories,” he concluded. the text of the IACHR and Acnudh.

AE/HM

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