PRESS STATEMENT
03 December 2007
Unleashed Against Poor Peasants in Northern Brazil
Since November 17, 2007. massive operations have been unleashed against the peasants in the south of Para state, Northern Brazil. The operation, so-called “Operation Peace on the Countryside”, involves a number of repression organs and aims to hunt peasants who are struggling bravely for the right to the land against notorious landlords, who have repeatedly been accused of serious violations of human rights.
Since the operation was unleashed, more than 200 peasants have been arrested. They have been subjected to torture, because the police want to gather evidence to criminalize more peasant activists. There are reports of beatings, drowning, and suffocations, being forced to swallow fresh pepper with salt and onion to entirely damage the organs of the persons. Many peasants are disappeared. Mothers and children are still without any information about their loved ones.
Among the reports is the death of Rivaldo, a peasant leader from Redenção. He was shot twice in the head.
All these reported events constitute very serious violations of human rights and condemned by the instruments of international law.
This violent wave of repression is upon the order of the governor of Para state, Ana Julia Carepa, from the Workers Party. The order was issued after a series of press articles were nationally distributed which slandered the peasants’ movements and called for harsh repressive measures against them. The concerned articles themselves are part of an orchestrated criminalization campaign against the League of Poor Peasants, a social movement struggling for land rights.
The forces loyal to the landlords could not execute eviction warrants to evict the peasants from the land. They used warrants of arrests that were issued based on false slanders and evidences, and indiscriminately attacking poor peasants. Through this method, more than one thousand peasant families were indiscriminately ejected from Forkilha farm. The possessions they left behind were reportedly destroyed.
The landlords have a notorious history of violation of human rights and land rights. They have been involved in slave work, gunmen activities, and widespread violence against the people. In the face of relentless repression and the abuse of their human rights and land rights, peasants have been defending themselves and struggling for their rights. As the indignation and revolt continues to grow among peasants, big landlords together with their bureaucrat and capitalist allies impose harsh measures of repression.
Therefore, the International Association of People's Lawyers (IAPL) :
REPUDIATES the legality of the so-called "Operation Peace on the Countryside" and the respective imprisonments, aggressions, and disappearances of peasants, and questions the legitimacy of the evidences attributed against them. Such operations seem chillingly similar to the state terrorism forms and methods practiced and spread throughout the world, by the US doctrine of the “war on terror”.
CONDEMNS the participation of the Brazilian Army in such operations. The Army fights against the interests of the Brazilian people, and makes Brazil an anti-democratic and police state.
AND DEMANDS:
1. the immediate stop to all torture and all repressive operations.2. immediate medical treatment to all attacked peasants.
3. the release of all arrested peasants and cancellation of all warrants of arrest.
4. indemnification to the peasants for destruction of their properties and suffering imposed.
5. effective access to the land, and
6. prosecution of all responsible individuals, groups and entities who are involved in the abuses in South Para.
IAPL - International Association of People's Lawyers
Send messages against the criminalization of poor peasants to the e-mails below:
Pará State Government;
Governor Ana Júlia Carepa: agenda@pa.gov.br
Ministry of Justice
Minister Tarso Genro: gabinetemj@mj.gov.br
Human Rights Commission of the Federal Deputies Chamber
President Luiz Couto: cdh@camara.gov.br / dep.luizcouto@camara.gov.br
Special Secretariat of Human Rights of Presidency of the Republic
Minister Paulo Vanuchi: direitoshumanos@sedh.gov.br