For Immediate Release
September 20th 2005
Contact: Emily Goldman (202) 463-7575 goldman@rfkmemorial.org

O Globo 18 September 2005 (English-language translation)

Ethel, Robert’s widow, plans to speak with Lula about the trial of those accused in the death of the nun

WASHINGTON. The eight siblings of Sister Dorothy Stang, assassinated in Pará [state] last February, have enlisted a powerful ally in their fight to convince the Brazilian justice system that the hired gunmen as well as those who ordered the crime be tried together by a federal tribunal. The ally is Ethel Kennedy, widow of the former Attorney General of the United States Robert F. Kennedy.

She plans to travel to Brazil, leading a group comprised of some of the Stangs and representatives of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, an organization she heads, in order to speak with the Minister of Justice, Márcio Thomaz Bastos, and with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Lula’s schedule in New York did not permit a meeting

An attempt to make contact with Lula was made several days ago by the Stangs and that non-governmental organization (NGO) during the president’s visit to New York to participate in the UN summit. However, an apparently full schedule [of Lula’s] did not permit an audience to take place. Ethel is determined to visit Brasília to speak with Lula. The delegation might be additionally strengthened by the inclusion of American Members of Congress:

“We know that Lula is experiencing some difficult times now due to the current political crisis in the country, however we know that there still exists a reserve of faith and hope in him. Lula enjoys the confidence of the markets and of the social movements. We feel that the passion and dedication Sister Dorothy Stang gave to the defense of poor Brazilians and the fact that she became a naturalized Brazilian citizen should be rewarded now by a just, transparent trial, without the harmful influence of those who ordered the assassination and who, through corrupt methods, are trying to buy their liberty,” Emily Goldman, anthropologist at the RFK Memorial, said to O Globo.

In an open letter to the president, published a few weeks ago by O Globo, the nun’s siblings said they were still in shock regarding the decision of the Superior Tribunal of Justice to reject the [petition for] federalization of the case. They argued that there is no doubt that Dorothy’s assassination constitutes a clear violation of human rights. And, putting in doubt the fairness of the trial, they asked: “What proof has Pará provided to us that justice will be served? What support is Pará giving to the poor and landless?”

David Stang, who has already traveled to Brazil several times, has become the spokesperson for the family. According to him, Dorothy was trying to protect the Amazon from the thieves “who, with the help of foreigners, are devastating that wonder [the Amazon].”

“Brazilians have always feared that the Amazon would be invaded by foreigners. Well, what we are seeing today is that the Amazon is in fact being sold to foreigners by illegal exploiters of its lumber. We do not understand why the country continues to permit this,” he said.

According to David Stang, Dorothy loved President Lula and Brazil so intensely “that it is as if all of us Stangs have come to feel like blood brothers and sisters with Brazilians.”

“She gave her life to the country that she so loved and to its people, particularly the poor. And she cannot be insulted in this way, with the manipulations of the land grabbers and illegal loggers to create a kangaroo trial in Anapu (in Pará), where they are sufficiently powerful to go unpunished. In Brazil it has been the practice for those who order the crimes are able to avoid prison,” says the nun’s brother.

The impassioned tone, at times irate, of his campaign to press for those who order crimes and the assassins themselves to be tried together, in a process made up of and led by the federal justice system, is tempered by the philosophical approach of his sister Marguerite, who is also an active participant in that campaign:

“Dorothy was a powerful testament to truth. It is because of that that we cannot permit evil to prevail. We have to be very firm and determined, because those forces of evil are alive . . . very much alive,” she told O Globo in the RFK Memorial offices in Washington.

Brother wants to maintain nun’s memory alive

David Stang made it clear that he has taken on Dorothy’s battle. He plans to keep his sister’s memory alive by continuing her work – although at a distance – and monitor the actions of her followers:

“Dorothy gave her life to prove that the poor can participate in the [national] economy. The impression that we have today is that the rich only want the poor as servants, and some of them as slaves. We are going to continue her fight. We, the Stang family, believe in that firmly because our own family came from the poor,” he said.

A Death Foretold
O Globo 18 September 2005 (English-language translation)

Committed to the bloody battles over land in Pará [state], American nun Dorothy Stang was targeted by death threats. After 20 years in Brazil, she was assassinated on 12 February in the municipality of Anapu, in the middle of the Amazon, 600 km from Belém. The nun was a victim of an ambush in the morning, as she was arriving in a rural area to give support to farmers who were camping out there. The tragedy had been announced one month before by INCRA in a communiqué to Governor Simão Jatene. Dorothy herself had also alerted then Special Secretary for Human Rights Nilmário Miranda to the death threats [she had received]. [All of this was] in vain.

The crime ripped a hole in the international image of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The American Ambassador [in Brasília] demanded that action be taken and there has been a significant international outcry. One landowner was indicted as one of those who ordered the crime and the hired gunmen were detained. Environmentalists and the nun’s family tried to get the trial moved away from Pará but the justice system denied the request. The government has done little to address the ongoing tensions in the region between the landowners and small farmers.

Click here to view original O Globo articles (in Portuguese)