Brazilian Indian burned alive
By Barry Healy
A Brazilian judge has caused outrage with an extraordinary ruling in the case of the killing of an Indian, Galdino Jesus dos Santos. On September 29 Judge Sandra de Santis Mello ruled that the charge against the accused should be assault and battery followed by death, not murder.
Jesus dos Santos, a Pataxo Ha-ha-hae Indian, was burned alive as he lay sleeping at a bus stop in Brasilia on the night of April 20. Murderous attacks of this sort have been taking place in Brazil for some years, but this is the first time that charges have been laid.
On October 7 the judge reiterated her decision on the charges and again ruled that the case not go to a jury trial.
In a statement Cimi, the Indianist Missionary Council, said that the ruling corroborates the common opinion that judges are biased and manipulated by the powerful groups and social classes to which they belong. "It also evokes the old feeling that impunity will once again prevail", Cimi commented.
Cimi says that all of the accused are members of the "high middle class" and one is the son of a judge. Cimi claims that they are being favoured by "a clear social and economic protectionism".
The ongoing struggles of Brazilian Indians were illustrated on September 7 when Indian representatives met with government officials to try to iron out land rights problems. Leaders of the Apoinme and Capoib Indian organisations met the minister for justice and the head of the government Indian affairs agency, Funai.
The minister walked out of the meeting and left it to Sullivan Silvestre, the president of Funai, to explain that the agency's budget has been cut by 28% and that indigenous areas are not being "demarcated" because of a lack of political will.
Among the issues to be resolved is the case of the Kaxixo people who are fighting to invalidate an old anthropological report according to which they don't exist.
Environmentalists have scored at least one recent victory in Brazilian courts. The first attempt to completely privatise the exploitation of a forest has been held up by a ruling that the necessary environmental impact statement has not been completed.