Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Yanomami Fight Mine

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 3 2008 (IPS) - Eight Yanomami Indians protested before Brazil's Chamber of Deputies on Feb. 26 against attempts to authorize mining operations on their land. Mining “to us is a machine for making holes in the ground, for destroying nature and land, polluting rivers and killing fish and causing other harm,” the group's leader, Davi Yanomami, told Tierramérica.

They oppose the position of a parliamentary commission that a few weeks earlier had visited the Yanomami villages in the northern state of Roraima to evaluate possible consequences of the mining operation, but which openly defended the industry.

The lawmakers will not be welcome for another visit, said Yanomami, responding to the announcement of a new parliamentary mission intended to clarify for the indigenous peoples who do not speak Portuguese the dispute that has arisen and what the mining operations would entail if they are approved.