Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Dourados (Agenzia Fides) - A delegation of Amnesty International on August 7, visited the Kaiowá Guaranì indigenous communities in the region of Dourados (MS). During the meeting, the Guarani Kaiowá leaders met the Secretary General of the Organization, the Indian Salil Shetty, to denounce the delay in the demarcation of the land and the violence suffered by the members of their community when they are on the outside of their traditional territories or confined in small reserves.
The note sent to Fides by the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI), reports the visit of the Secretary-General to sixteen Kaiowá families who have been living for more than ten years in shacks along the national highway BR-163, where trucks carrying soybeans and sugar cane pass by. Here five natives were killed invested by trucks, and one was poisoned by pesticides used on the plantations in the area.
"We are in the middle of 2013, and one cannot just do what one wants with indigenous lands, as if there were no rights that have to be respected", said Salil to the indigenous leaders. "Here, I met mothers who lost their young children, the elderly who lost their children. These things happen in broad daylight, and there is no investigation. Persons committing these crimes simply remain free. It is a great shame for Brazil", he concluded. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 09/08/2013)
