June 22, 2022

09:06

Marcela Leiros – from Amazon Agency

BRASILIA – Representatives of the Observatory of Human Rights of Isolated Indigenous Peoples and Recent Contact (OPI) and the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab) asked for protection to those who work in the defense of environmental and territorial rights in the Javari Valley in the Amazon. The appeals were made this Tuesday, 21, to the external commission of the House of Representatives that intends to monitor the investigations into the deaths of the licensed employee of the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) and british journalist Dominic Mark Phillips, known as “Dom Phillips”.

The indigenous leader of the OPI, Leonardo Lenin Santos, outlined the main demands to the commission. He also recalled that the disappearance and deaths of the British journalist and the indigenist “is not an isolated situation”, since threats and attacks on those who protect indigenous peoples have been occurring for many years and are ignored by the competent bodies.

“It is a modus operandi that is happening in the Amazon in relation to indigenous peoples”, he said. “We ask that this commission, and all the others, listen and respect the action of Univaja, especially, in this situation. It is worth pointing out that all the effective results of the searches, by Bruno and Dom, were found by the indigenous people, the owners of that space.”

Lenin also reiterated that it is extremely necessary and urgent to guarantee the protection of the indigenous organization’s surveillance team, especially the coordinators Paulo Marubo, Eliésio Marubo and Beto Marubo, as well as the Funai regional coordination staff. The Javari Valley is the second largest indigenous land in the country, and home to the largest concentration of isolated peoples in the world.

“These people have been threatened, they have made their complaints. Now, the concern is immediate about what happens to these people who are still there”, he further requested.

Other points claimed were: the explanation about the progress of the investigation regarding the death of the indigenist Maxciel Pereira dos Santos, in 2019, in the city of Tabatinga, also in Amazonas; what are the processes opened by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), Federal Police (PF), Funai and other bodies about the denunciations made by the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (Univaja), as well as the regulation of the project that instituted the police power to the foundation.

Abandonment

It was Univaja who denounced the disappearance of the indigenous expert and the journalist who occurred on June 5. The bodies of Phillips and Bruno were found submerged in the Javari Valley on June 15. The medical examination carried out by Federal Police experts indicated that the journalist’s death was caused by “thoracoabdominal trauma” caused by a shot fired by a firearm used for hunting. Bruno Pereira died as a result of “thoracoabdominal and cranial trauma” also caused by gunfire from hunting firearms.

The indigenous leader, political advisor to the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab) and coordinator of the Territories and Natural Resources Area of the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (Coica), Toya Manchineri, emphasized that the Brazilian State abandons indigenous peoples and facilitates invasions in the Amazon.

“What is happening in the Javari Valley region, in relation to the indigenous peoples and their territories, is the abandonment of the brazilian State in relation to the protection of rights, in its entirety, from health to education. What happens is that the rights of indigenous people are violated and the government looks at them as if they did not exist on Brazilian soil”, he said.

“Our country can’t protect the border area and then says that the foreigners want to take the Amazon, but we ourselves can’t protect our country and we don’t give the necessary conditions for the people who live there to protect their space and their homes, but they take this right away from us. What is left for us to do is just lament and die”, Manchineri concluded.

Work Plan

Besides the House of Representatives, the Senate also installed an external commission to follow the investigations of the case and investigate the increase of violence in the Amazon. The first meeting took place on Monday, 20, and according to the president, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP), the expectation is that the commission will go to Javari Valley, in Amazonas, next week. The president of the external commission in the House of Representatives, José Ricardo (PT-AM), also intends to carry out diligence in the same period.

“The forecast is that next week we will be able to carry out the visit. The date we will still have to define, but we will also have a dialogue with the external commission of the Senate”, said the federal lawmaker.

The work plan of the commission in the House of Representatives will monitor the investigations into the deaths of Dom Phillips and Bruno Araújo Pereira, as well as analyze the dismantling of environmental and indigenous protection agencies in the region, and seek short and medium term solutions to protect the indigenous peoples.

The commission will also hold hearings with the presence of authorities, representatives of public agencies, researchers, indigenous representatives, and the families of the murdered journalist and indigenist.