RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Gov’t, Landless Unite in Struggle Against Impunity

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 28 1999 (IPS) - An unlikely alliance has emerged in Brazil, where both the government and the “landless movement” are fighting the impunity enjoyed by the military police implicated in the 1996 massacre of 19 peasant farmers in Eldorado de Carajás, in northern Brazil.

The commanders of a contingent of 150 military police accused of repressing a protest by some 1,500 landless rural workers were acquitted in the first session of the trial, which lasted 64 hours, last week.

On Apr 17, 1996, the military police opened fire on a highway march staged by a group of landless protesters demanding faster and more extensive agrarian reform in a country where most of the land is concentrated in just a few hands.

Divided into 27 sessions, what has been described as the largest trial in the history of Brazil began Aug 16, and was initially scheduled to end in December.

But the acquittal of the three officers raised an outcry by the Movimento dos Sem Terra (MST – Landless Movement), human rights groups and international public opinion disturbed by the impunity enjoyed by those implicated in massacres and other rights abuses in Brazil.

Analysts warn that the trial could turn into a lengthy pitched judicial and political battle, over demands for a re-trial of the commanders of the repression.

The MST and the government’s National Secretary of Human Rights José Gregori – representing the interests of the government in the case – the Brazilian bar association and other social organisations have all lined up behind the call for a re-trial.

The seven members of the jury presiding over the first session acquitted Colonel Mario Pantoja by four votes against three, and absolved his immediate subordinates by five to two, based on the grounds of “insufficient evidence.”

MST leaders described the trial as a “farce,” and called nationwide protests in Brazil’s main cities demanding a re-trial, in an all-out offensive against the judiciary, blamed for repeatedly letting off the hook those accused of killing peasant farmers, trade unionists and their defence lawyers.

President Fernando Henrique Cardoso also lamented the acquittal, stating – “as a citizen” – that “impunity stands in the way of the consolidation of democracy” in Brazil.

Legal experts like Reginaldo de Castro, president of Brazil’s bar association, said the trial could be annulled on the basis of irregularities.

One of the members of the jury, a sworn enemy of the landless movement, demanded a new viewing of the video containing scenes of the massacre, filmed by a reporter, arguing that the protesters fired the first shots.

But the video made it clear that only one peasant farmer was armed – with a pistol – and that the police fired at least two shots first – with automatic weapons.

The argument that the protesters opened fire first was central to the acquittals, and thus the question must be reexamined, Gregori maintained.

There were also contradictions between responses by the jury to questions put forth by the judge, said Castro, who added that the bar association would press for a re-trial due to what it saw as the bias of the verdict.

Prosecutor Marco Aurelio Nascimento has already taken the first step towards a re-trial by seeking annulment of the first session by a higher court.

And on Friday, when the trial of four other military police officers was to start, Nascimento left the courtroom, thus forcing a postponement of the second session until the higher court issues its ruling on a re-trial.

The absolution of the three commanders makes conviction of any of the other 147 police agents next to impossible, the prosecutor argued.

The indefinite postponement of the trial – possibly for as long as six months, according to lawyers – will bring continued protests, especially by the MST, demanding convictions, and will further tarnish Brazil’s already poor international image as a country where impunity reigns.