By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 16 2005 (IPS)

The 2,000 army troops that Brazil began to deploy Wednesday to the northern state of Pará will not be sufficient to control the tension in the Amazon jungle municipalities where four people have been killed in disputes over land in the past four days.

Although the mobilisation of troops and the probable capture of the killers of Dorothy Stang, a missionary and environmental activist from the United States who held Brazilian citizenship, are important, they will not suffice to solve the land conflicts that generate so much violence in Pará, said Tomas Balduino, president of the Catholic Church’s Pastoral Land Commission (CPT).

The soldiers have been given the mission of keeping the peace and curbing violence in the rural municipalities of Altamira, Anapú and Parauapebas.

Stang was shot and killed by two gunmen in Anapú on Saturday, and two peasant farmers were slain there on Sunday and Tuesday, creating a climate of fear and tension that has extended to Altamira, the nearest city.

And in Parauapebas, in the southern part of the state, an area that has been known for its rural violence for decades, rural union leader Daniel Soares da Costa Filho was murdered Tuesday.

The CPT reported that 40 people have received death threats in the state of Pará, most of them because of conflicts over land.

In an interview with IPS, she explained that the paving of the two roads in that area, which is to happen in the near future, will attract land speculators and new settlers – and new conflicts.

The long Transamazonian Highway began to be built in the 1970s, during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship, with the aim of linking the impoverished and more heavily populated northeast with the heart of the Amazon jungle.

The objective was to create human settlements, and thus effectively occupy, the sparsely populated Amazon region, which according to a long-standing national paranoia was coveted by other countries.

But the highway, which has not yet been completed and is largely unpaved, is considered an example of a failed project, and is in fact impassable at several points.

Thousands of migrants have been drawn to Anapú, which lies at the centre of the current tension, by the plans to pave the highway and to build a large hydropower dam nearby, as well as the implementation of a Sustainable Development Project – a novel form of rural settlement that combines the gathering and extraction of forestry products with environmentally sustainable farming.

For these reasons, the rural municipality, which was home to just over 9,400 people according to the 2000 census, now has an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 inhabitants.

Anapú and much of the state of Pará have thus turned into a "powder keg", in the words of da Costa, who described the region as a lawless area where chaos over land ownership, slave labour, and violence – death threats, assault and murder – against rural activists and workers converge, with little state presence or control.

The conflicts mainly occur between poor farmers, many of whom form part of settlements created by the government’s land reform programme, and the "grileiros", people who invade and seize public property or private land belonging to others, using forged documents or, simply, violence.

Most of the land in Pará, as in other Amazon jungle states in Brazil, belongs to the State. In other words, it is "no-man’s land", and at the mercy of large landowners or logging companies who take possession of it illegally.

The clearing of the forest by logging or through the "slash and burn" technique have expanded in the Amazon, because they can serve as a method to claim ownership of rural property.

In the case of Anapú, part of the area was granted to landowners in the 1970s, on the condition that they were to begin farming it within five years or it would revert to the State.

But although they failed to comply, those who were granted the land in concession, or farmers to whom they sold it illegally, still consider it their legitimate property.

According to da Costa and government officials, this week’s outburst of violence was triggered by the start of government efforts to take the land back, complete a land registry in the area, and legalise and create settlements in which landless rural labourers would have a plot of their own to farm.

The torching of houses, destruction of crops, threats and murders by hired gunmen are methods used by the landowners who lay claim to the property, in their attempt to evict impoverished new occupants, including those who have been settled there by the government, said the activist.

But the army troops who have been sent in to stop the violence are a classic case of too little, too late, she complained. Police or military protection for the targets of death threats will not suffice to prevent the murders of activists in such a vast territory and in the midst of so many conflicts, she said.

An effective solution for the complex web of problems in the area would require a massive, long-lasting intervention involving close coordination among a number of government agencies and public entities, in order to simultaneously address the questions of public safety, land titling chaos, and pressing social and environmental issues, said da Costa.

She and other Amazon activists hope the death of Sister Dorothy Stang, which sparked national and international outrage, will not merely result in the usual narrow-focused, limited efforts that peter out after a few months, without bringing any long-term solutions or modifications.

This is a chance for change, for a "vigorous response" to the violence by the leftist government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in order to create the momentum to overcome the conflicts over land and to ensure the sustainable use and conservation of the Amazon jungle, another IPAM leader, Paulo Moutinho, told IPS.

Excerpt:

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 16 2005 (IPS)

The 2,000 army troops that Brazil began to deploy Wednesday to the northern state of Pará will not be sufficient to control the tension in the Amazon jungle municipalities where four people have been killed in disputes over land in the past four days.

The 2,000 army troops that Brazil began to deploy Wednesday to the northern state of Pará will not be sufficient to control the tension in the Amazon jungle municipalities where four people have been killed in disputes over land in the past four days.

Although the mobilisation of troops and the probable capture of the killers of Dorothy Stang, a missionary and environmental activist from the United States who held Brazilian citizenship, are important, they will not suffice to solve the land conflicts that generate so much violence in Pará, said Tomas Balduino, president of the Catholic Church’s Pastoral Land Commission (CPT).

The soldiers have been given the mission of keeping the peace and curbing violence in the rural municipalities of Altamira, Anapú and Parauapebas.

Stang was shot and killed by two gunmen in Anapú on Saturday, and two peasant farmers were slain there on Sunday and Tuesday, creating a climate of fear and tension that has extended to Altamira, the nearest city.

And in Parauapebas, in the southern part of the state, an area that has been known for its rural violence for decades, rural union leader Daniel Soares da Costa Filho was murdered Tuesday.

The tension “has built up over many years” along the Transamazonian and Cuiabá-Santarém highways that cut across the state, said Rosana da Costa at the Amazon Institute of Environmental Research (IPAM).

In an interview with IPS, she explained that the paving of the two roads in that area, which is to happen in the near future, will attract land speculators and new settlers – and new conflicts.

The long Transamazonian Highway began to be built in the 1970s, during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship, with the aim of linking the impoverished and more heavily populated northeast with the heart of the Amazon jungle.

The objective was to create human settlements, and thus effectively occupy, the sparsely populated Amazon region, which according to a long-standing national paranoia was coveted by other countries.

But the highway, which has not yet been completed and is largely unpaved, is considered an example of a failed project, and is in fact impassable at several points.

Thousands of migrants have been drawn to Anapú, which lies at the centre of the current tension, by the plans to pave the highway and to build a large hydropower dam nearby, as well as the implementation of a Sustainable Development Project – a novel form of rural settlement that combines the gathering and extraction of forestry products with environmentally sustainable farming.

For these reasons, the rural municipality, which was home to just over 9,400 people according to the 2000 census, now has an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 inhabitants.

Anapú and much of the state of Pará have thus turned into a “powder keg”, in the words of da Costa, who described the region as a lawless area where chaos over land ownership, slave labour, and violence – death threats, assault and murder – against rural activists and workers converge, with little state presence or control.

The conflicts mainly occur between poor farmers, many of whom form part of settlements created by the government’s land reform programme, and the “grileiros”, people who invade and seize public property or private land belonging to others, using forged documents or, simply, violence.

Most of the land in Pará, as in other Amazon jungle states in Brazil, belongs to the State. In other words, it is “no-man’s land”, and at the mercy of large landowners or logging companies who take possession of it illegally.

The clearing of the forest by logging or through the “slash and burn” technique have expanded in the Amazon, because they can serve as a method to claim ownership of rural property.

In the case of Anapú, part of the area was granted to landowners in the 1970s, on the condition that they were to begin farming it within five years or it would revert to the State.

But although they failed to comply, those who were granted the land in concession, or farmers to whom they sold it illegally, still consider it their legitimate property.

According to da Costa and government officials, this week’s outburst of violence was triggered by the start of government efforts to take the land back, complete a land registry in the area, and legalise and create settlements in which landless rural labourers would have a plot of their own to farm.

The torching of houses, destruction of crops, threats and murders by hired gunmen are methods used by the landowners who lay claim to the property, in their attempt to evict impoverished new occupants, including those who have been settled there by the government, said the activist.

But the army troops who have been sent in to stop the violence are a classic case of too little, too late, she complained. Police or military protection for the targets of death threats will not suffice to prevent the murders of activists in such a vast territory and in the midst of so many conflicts, she said.

An effective solution for the complex web of problems in the area would require a massive, long-lasting intervention involving close coordination among a number of government agencies and public entities, in order to simultaneously address the questions of public safety, land titling chaos, and pressing social and environmental issues, said da Costa.

She and other Amazon activists hope the death of Sister Dorothy Stang, which sparked national and international outrage, will not merely result in the usual narrow-focused, limited efforts that peter out after a few months, without bringing any long-term solutions or modifications.

This is a chance for change, for a “vigorous response” to the violence by the leftist government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in order to create the momentum to overcome the conflicts over land and to ensure the sustainable use and conservation of the Amazon jungle, another IPAM leader, Paulo Moutinho, told IPS.

Excerpt:

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 16 2005 (IPS)

The 2,000 army troops that Brazil began to deploy Wednesday to the northern state of Pará will not be sufficient to control the tension in the Amazon jungle municipalities where four people have been killed in disputes over land in the past four days.

Although the mobilisation of troops and the probable capture of the killers of Dorothy Stang, a missionary and environmental activist from the United States who held Brazilian citizenship, are important, they will not suffice to solve the land conflicts that generate so much violence in Pará, said Tomas Balduino, president of the Catholic Church’s Pastoral Land Commission (CPT).

The soldiers have been given the mission of keeping the peace and curbing violence in the rural municipalities of Altamira, Anapú and Parauapebas.

Stang was shot and killed by two gunmen in Anapú on Saturday, and two peasant farmers were slain there on Sunday and Tuesday, creating a climate of fear and tension that has extended to Altamira, the nearest city.

And in Parauapebas, in the southern part of the state, an area that has been known for its rural violence for decades, rural union leader Daniel Soares da Costa Filho was murdered Tuesday.

The CPT reported that 40 people have received death threats in the state of Pará, most of them because of conflicts over land.

In an interview with IPS, she explained that the paving of the two roads in that area, which is to happen in the near future, will attract land speculators and new settlers – and new conflicts.

The long Transamazonian Highway began to be built in the 1970s, during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship, with the aim of linking the impoverished and more heavily populated northeast with the heart of the Amazon jungle.

The objective was to create human settlements, and thus effectively occupy, the sparsely populated Amazon region, which according to a long-standing national paranoia was coveted by other countries.

But the highway, which has not yet been completed and is largely unpaved, is considered an example of a failed project, and is in fact impassable at several points.

Thousands of migrants have been drawn to Anapú, which lies at the centre of the current tension, by the plans to pave the highway and to build a large hydropower dam nearby, as well as the implementation of a Sustainable Development Project – a novel form of rural settlement that combines the gathering and extraction of forestry products with environmentally sustainable farming.

For these reasons, the rural municipality, which was home to just over 9,400 people according to the 2000 census, now has an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 inhabitants.

Anapú and much of the state of Pará have thus turned into a “powder keg”, in the words of da Costa, who described the region as a lawless area where chaos over land ownership, slave labour, and violence – death threats, assault and murder – against rural activists and workers converge, with little state presence or control.

The conflicts mainly occur between poor farmers, many of whom form part of settlements created by the government’s land reform programme, and the “grileiros”, people who invade and seize public property or private land belonging to others, using forged documents or, simply, violence.

Most of the land in Pará, as in other Amazon jungle states in Brazil, belongs to the State. In other words, it is “no-man’s land”, and at the mercy of large landowners or logging companies who take possession of it illegally.

The clearing of the forest by logging or through the “slash and burn” technique have expanded in the Amazon, because they can serve as a method to claim ownership of rural property.

In the case of Anapú, part of the area was granted to landowners in the 1970s, on the condition that they were to begin farming it within five years or it would revert to the State.

But although they failed to comply, those who were granted the land in concession, or farmers to whom they sold it illegally, still consider it their legitimate property.

According to da Costa and government officials, this week’s outburst of violence was triggered by the start of government efforts to take the land back, complete a land registry in the area, and legalise and create settlements in which landless rural labourers would have a plot of their own to farm.

The torching of houses, destruction of crops, threats and murders by hired gunmen are methods used by the landowners who lay claim to the property, in their attempt to evict impoverished new occupants, including those who have been settled there by the government, said the activist.

But the army troops who have been sent in to stop the violence are a classic case of too little, too late, she complained. Police or military protection for the targets of death threats will not suffice to prevent the murders of activists in such a vast territory and in the midst of so many conflicts, she said.

An effective solution for the complex web of problems in the area would require a massive, long-lasting intervention involving close coordination among a number of government agencies and public entities, in order to simultaneously address the questions of public safety, land titling chaos, and pressing social and environmental issues, said da Costa.

She and other Amazon activists hope the death of Sister Dorothy Stang, which sparked national and international outrage, will not merely result in the usual narrow-focused, limited efforts that peter out after a few months, without bringing any long-term solutions or modifications.

This is a chance for change, for a “vigorous response” to the violence by the leftist government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in order to create the momentum to overcome the conflicts over land and to ensure the sustainable use and conservation of the Amazon jungle, another IPAM leader, Paulo Moutinho, told IPS.

Excerpt: