For Immediate Release
August 25th 2005

Contact: Emily Goldman (202) 463-7575 goldman@rfkmemorial.org

O Globo 25 August 2005 (English-language translation)

BRASÍLIA. President of INCRA [National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform] Rolf Hackbart reacted yesterday to the criticisms of the relatives of the nun Dorothy Stang regarding the government’s delay in implementing agrarian reform in Pará. Hackbart says that all of the measures announced by the government immediately after Dorothy’s assassination at the beginning of the year are in progress. He says that the georeferencing of 600,000 hectares of land in the region of Anapu will start on 1 September.

According to Hackbart, 25 teams from INCRA have been selected to do the surveying, with the support of the Army. After that, the government will have the requisite conditions to identify illegally-owned lands in the region and with that, intensify/quicken the land reform. Nevertheless, the president of INCRA says that, since the assassination of the nun, 630 families have been settled and 340 of those are already receiving technical assistance. The government also opened up a line of credit of R340,000 [US$139,768] for the families in the region, but the money was not handed out because two associations of small farmers have not yet formalized their bank accounts.

“We are going to meet this year’s goal and we are looking to meet the general goal next year,” says Hackbart.

The government’s goal is to settle 115,000 families throughout the country this year and 430,000 families before 2006. In the open letter to President Lula, Dorothy’s relatives complain that Lula “has not sought funding . . . from the World Bank . . . that would make possible the implementation of land reform.” As the President has not responded to those challenges, he “will not be able to realize his campaign pledge to settle 430,000 landless families.”

Ismael Machado
O Globo 25 August 2005 (English-language translation)

BELÉM. Six months after the assassination of American nun Dorothy Stang in the county of Anapu, state of Pará, there are days that Father José Amaro describes as being an “armed peace.” Illegal landowners, loggers, and rural workers arm themselves, awaiting a conflict that can explode at any moment. This is because the promises made by the Lula government to implement the Sustainable Development Projects (SDPs) remain on paper only. While the promises are not carried out, loggers extract logs from the area of the SDPs during the night.

Dorothy’s relatives published an open letter in yesterday’s O Globo, criticizing the “few concrete actions” taken by the government against the impunity in Pará. Until today, the georeferencing to demarcate the areas for the SDPs, one of the government’s promises for formalizing claims to the lands in Anapu, has not begun. INCRA [National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform] was to begin that work two months ago.

Today, Attorney General Felício Pontes will meet with 800 farmers to listen to their demands in that category. The guideline is the collection of the georeferencing. At least 60% of the lands in the county belong to the nation.

“It is a complicated situation, because as regards land reform, nothing has progressed. The farmers have no credit and without formal claims to their lands. The illegal landowners did not have their lands expropriated, and the latest promise made by the government in the presence of INCRA and the Army to undertake the georeferencing, was also not met,” said the Attorney General.

Pontes affirmed that the announcement regarding the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant contributed to inciting these conflicts. According to him, the population of the county tripled after the announcement, made during the government of Fernando Henrique [Cardoso].

“The climate here is artificially calm, because the governments, both state and federal, do not have a pulse,” says Father José Amaro, one of Dorothy Stang’s principal followers. Amaro has been threatened with death by the illegal landowners.

“The loggers are once again feeling confident that they can continue to exploit the forest illegally,” he said.

Decision on the legal proceedings will be made in September

The possibility that the trial of the five individuals accused of being involved in the assassination will still be held this year is becoming more remote all the time. This is because the process is stalled, awaiting a decision on the request of the Justice Ministry that the trial should be held in Belém rather than in Pacajá. The request is in the hands of appeals court judge Raimunda Gomes, rapporteur of the process. The decision should be made in September.

Américo Leal, lawyer for Vitalmiro Moura, known as “Bida,” one of the two men accused of ordering the crime, entered a habeas corpus in the Supreme Federal Tribunal, against moving the trial out of Pacajá. “That idea clings to the constitutional principle of the natural judge, that is to say, the trial should be held in the place where the events took place.”

Click here for a link to the Response articles printed in O Globo (in Portuguese)
http://www.rfkmemorial.org/human_rights/2001_Frigo/Dorothy.pdf