25.08.88 - Nº 3

BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT FRAGMENTS AND REDUCES BY 70% YANOMAMI TERRITOR
On 19 August, Romero Jucá Filho, the president of FUNAI,. announced that the Interministerial Group responsible for making decisions on indigenous land questions in Brazil, has decided to demarcate the Yanomami land area. This area will cover approximately 8 million hectares in the State of Amazonas and the Federal Territory.

After analyzing the proposal made public by FUNAI's president, The Commission for the Creation of the Yanomami Park (CCPY) has come to the following conclusions which it wishes to make known to the public:

1.The proposed land area to be effectively demarcated as Yanomami lands amounts to only 2,435,215 hectares, which represents less than ,30% of the territory traditionally occupied by the Yanomami people;

2.This solution fragments the Yanomami territory into 19 distinct and discontinuous land areas, thus undermining the integrity of the Indians' lands, jeopardizing their historical occupation, and threatening their social reproduction;

3.The announced measures set aside more than 70% of the territory for the creation of two different types of forest areas which have as their justification the protection of the environrnent but which will beregulated by laws that do not consider Indian land rights. One type is a national park, the other national forests (of which there will be two) which will be open to economic development. The proposed measures also allow for a situation of multiple administrations with conflicting interests;

4.Furthermore, according to the press declarations made by FUNAI`s President, parts of Yanomami territory will be set aside for gold prospecting, wich in effect gives legal recognition to the invasion of Yanomami territory;

5.Worse still, the approximately 8 million hectares set aside by the Interministerial Group in a misleading manner for the Yanomami have been called “Indigenous Yanomami Lands”, a concept that has no basics in existing laws.

We therefore wish to call the attention of the national and international public to the fact that the above-mentioned measures announced by FUNAI's President as being an historical landmark in Brazil's Indian policy, in reality represent a major deception, a deliberate manipulation of the facts, to mislead public opinion which for many years has urged the Brazilian government authorities to create the Yanomami Indian Park in a continuous land area and including all of the territory traditionally occupied by the Yanomami people.

Furthermore, the above-mentioned measures represent a grave disrespect for the Constitutional project B to be promulgated, which in paragraph I of Article 234 guarantees the integrity of Indian rights to their traditional lands.

Faced by these facts, the CCPY is alerting Brazilian government authorities to the grave consequences that the Yanomami will suffer from the loss of most of their lands, appealling to the president of the Republic and to the Ministers of the Interior, Agrarian Reform, and the Secretary General of the National Security Council not to ratify the above mentioned measures, urging them to restudy these measures in light of paragraph I of Article 234 of the new Brazilian Constitution, and appealing to them to take the necessary measures to remove the thousands of gold prospectors illegally working in Yanomami territory.

We are faced by an emergency situation and urge international organizations and indivtduals who have over the years followed the Yanomami question to send Telex messages or cables as soon as possible to the following authorities:

Presidente José Sarney
presidência da República
Gabinete Civil
Telex nº 61 3117 PRDF
Palácio do Planalto
70150 Brasília DF Brasil

General Bayma Denys
secretário Geral do Conselho de Segurança Nacional
Telex nº 61 2455 SSGF
Praça dos Três Poderes
Palácio do Planalto
70150 Brasília DF Brasil

Ministro João Alves
Ministério do Interior
Telex nº 61 1015 or 61 1186
Esplanada dos Ministérios
70040 Brasília DF Brasil

Ministro Leopoldo Bessoni
Ministério de Reforma e do Desenvolvimento Agrário (MIRAD)
Telex nº 61 1063 MNRD
Setor Bancário Norte
Palácio do Desenvolvimento 20º andar
70057 Brasília DF Brasil

These authorities comprise the Interministerial Group. Please urge them not to ratify the measures announced by FUNAI's President Jucá Filho, to restudy these measures in light of paragraph I of Art. 234 of the new Constitution, and to take the immediate necessary steps to remove the gold prospectors from Yanomami lands. We would appreciate receiving copies of your communications.

Thanks you very much.

Claudia Andujar
Coordinator