update juillet 2007
Brésil : Les meurtriers de Sr. Dorothy accusés d’esclavage
moderne
ROME, Jeudi 26 juillet 2007 (ZENIT.org) – Plus d’un an après
l’assassinat de la missionnaire Dorothy Stang à Anapu dans l’Etat
du Pará, le Ministère fédéral du Brésil
a dénoncé ses tueurs auprès de la Justice Fédérale
d’Altamira (Pará, dans le nord du Brésil).
Ils sont accusés d’avoir fait travailler, en 2004, 28 personnes
dans des conditions proches de l’esclavage, d’avoir bafoué
leur droit au travail et de les avoir manipulés. Le bureau du Procureur
de la République de l’Etat du Para les accuse également
d’avoir falsifié et omis des informations d’ordre publique.
Regivaldo Pereira Galvão, Vi talmiro Bastos de Moura, Vander Paixão
Bastos de Moura et Valdivino Felipe de Andrade Filho, encourent une peine
de 1 à 24 ans de prison.
Selon le Bureau du procureur de la République de Pará, leur
délit a été découvert par le Groupe Spécial
de Fiscalisation Mobile du Ministère du Travail en 2004. Après
quoi les travailleurs ont été libérés et payés.
Deux des inculpés, Regivaldo Galvão et son associé Vitalmiro
Bastos de Moura, sont accusés d’être impliqués dans
le meurtre, en 2005, de la missionnaire Dorothy Mae Stang. Bastos de Moura
a déjà été condamné à 30 ans de
prison alors que Regivaldo Galvão, accusé d’être
le commanditaire de l’assassinat, devra passer sous jugement dans les
prochains mois.
Sœur Dorothy Stang a été assassinée par 7 coups
d’arme à feu, à l’âge de 73 ans. Le meurtre
a eu lieu le 12 février 2005, à 53 kilomètres d’Anapu
(Etat du Pará), où la religieuse a été enterrée.
La religieuse américaine, naturalisée brésilienne, avait
reçu des menaces de mort des fazendeiros de la région dès
qu’elle avait commencé à travailler en faveur des travailleurs
ruraux, en 1997. Elle se battait notamment contre la déforestation
de l’Amazonie, prévoyant dans ce cadre plusieurs projets d’exploitation
durable.
Pendant plus de 30 ans, Sœur Dorothy a exercé son travail apostolique
avec les petites communautés rurales de la région.
Les terres où travaillait la religieuse sont objet de violentes disputes
entre les travaille urs du bois et les grands fazendeiros du Pará.
update 12-12-2005
BRÉSIL 12/12/2005 15.59 (Misna)
HOMICIDE DE SŒUR STANG: L’UN DES ASSASSINS "REGRETTE"
"Je regrette beaucoup. J’ai fait quelque chose que je n’aurais
jamais dû faire. J’assume la responsabilité de mon erreur
et j’espère payer pour ce que j’ai commis" a déclaré
Rayfran das Neves, après avoir été condamné samedi
dernier à 27 ans de prison pour l’homicide de Sœur Dorothy
Stang (74 ans), tuée le 12 février dernier à Anapu, localité
située à environ 700 kilomètres de Bélém,
capitale de l’État amazonien du Pará, dans le nord du Brésil.
Le complice de Rayfran das Neves, Clodoaldo Batista, a été condamné
à 17 ans de réclusion. Le frère de la religieuse assassinée,
David Stang, présent à la lecture du verdict, a déclaré
: "Ma sœur a obtenu justice. Manquent maintenant à l’appel
les commanditaires de ce meurtre". Il se réfère aux trois
propriétaires fonciers Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, Amair Feijoli da
Cunha et Regivaldo Pereira, qui doivent être jugés l’an
prochain.
Protest assassination of Sister Dorothy Stang
Dear JPIC Promoters,
At
our meeting on Wednesday last, Sister Dorothy Stang, a Notre Dame de Namur sister
who was brutally assassinated last week in Brazil was at the center of our prayers.
I have worked with land questions in Brazil for 20 years and know the violence
associated with the kind of ministry Sister Dorothy was engaged in. I am sending
you a copy of the recent SEJUP Newsletter which gives the background to her
untimely violent death. It also requests protest messages to Brazilian authorities
listed at the end of the Newsletter. Please consider circulating this Newsletter
amongst the members of your congregation and your friends asking them to send
protest e-mails.
In case some may wonder what SEJUP's "News From Brazil"
background is the following information may help. It is one of the few newsletters
published in English on a regular basis dealing specifically with Brazilian
human rights issues. I was involved in its founding and worked with it through
the 1990s. I worked with the present editor - Joanne Blaney (a Maryknoller)
on the SEJUP team during that period. This is by way of saying that the information
contained below is trustworthy.
Brazilian authorities are very conscious about international public
opinion. For this reason protest messages do make a big impact. Please consider
giving this material wide circulation amongst your congregation members and
friends.
John Kilcrann
To
see Photos and more
Sejup <sejup@terra.com.br> wrote:
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 10:53:40 -0300
To: sejup@terra.com.br
From: Sejup
Subject: News from Brazil, No. 525
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS FROM BRAZIL supplied by SEJUP (Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz).
Number 525, February 18, 2005
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Visit our home page: http://www.sejup.org
This edition of News from Brazil focuses on the assassination of Sr. Dorothy
Stang in the Amazon area and includes an URGENT ACTION REQUEST at the bottom
of this page.
Sister Dorothy Stang, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur from Cincinnati, was
assassinated on Saturday, Feb. 12, 2005 in Anapu, Para. Sr. Dorothy was 74 years
old and lived in Brazil for more than 30 years. She was a member of the Catholic
Church´s Pastoral Land Commission and worked with the Association of Ecological
Solidarity in the Amazon area.
At the time of her death, Sr. Dorothy was on her way to a meeting about a project
of small scale sustainable agriculture in Boa Esperança, an area that
had been granted to landless peasants by the federal government. She was accompanied
by two rural workers when she was shot and killed. The two witnesses who escaped
are suffering death threats and three more people have been killed in the area
since Saturday.
The judicial system in Para has ordered the arrests of four suspects in the
case: Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, the landowner who is accused of ordering the
assassination, as well as three of his Aprivate security guards, two of whom
carried out the assassination.
The town of Anapu, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, is the place where
Sr. Dorothy worked in trying to protect the rainforest and its people from disastrous
and often illegal exploitation by logging firms and ranchers. The area is notorious
for violence, crime, and slave labour. Greenpeace estimates that 90% of the
timber in Para is illegally logged. Para also has the country´s highest
rate of deaths related to land battles. Just two weeks ago, Sr. Dorothy met
Nilmario Miranda, the Brazilian Government´s Human Rights Secretary, and
told him of the death threats that she and others had received and asked for
the government´s help. According to Miranda, “She always asked for
protection for others, never for herself.”
Sr. Dorothy received a number of awards for her work, including the “Human
Rights Award” from the Bar Association of Brazil on December 10, 2004.
She truly lived the mission statement of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Cincinnati
to “take our stand with poor people, especially women and children, in
the most abandoned places. Many manifestations against Sr. Dorothy´s assassination
have occured throughout the country.”
This week, the federal government sent 2,000 military troops from the army
to the area to quell the tensions. According to Bishop Tomás Balduíno,
the president of the Pastoral Land Commission, “the presence of the army
is palliative. We do not think that this social problem will be resolved with
a police or military base. The military dictatorship tried to do this.”
By Joanne Blaney, editor of Sejup
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Stang Exposes and Condemns
the Wickedness of Agribusiness
The following is a transcript of a collective interview with Bishop Tomas Balduino,
the President of the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) and Bishop Erwin Krõutler
of the Diocese of Xingu, Para. The interview was given on February 16, 2005
at the Brazilian Bishops´ Conference in Brasilia.
The brutal assassination of Sister Dorothy, on Saturday, February 12, shocked
and triggered outrage in everyone. For Brazil and the world, her death denounces
the absurd rural structures of concentration of land in large properties, alongside
millions of families who persevere and persist in having a small piece of land
to house their family and provide for their sustenance. (Editor´s note:
Less than 3% of the population owns two-thirds of Brazil´s arable land
and 60% of Brazil´s farmland lies idle while 25 million peasants struggle
to survive.)
Large land-owners (latifundium), masked as modern agribusinesses, want to maintain
the untouchable land structure because it guarantees them hegemonic power and
privileges over all of the aspects of the Brazilian state. These land owners
want to open up tracts of the forest to support “economic growth and profit.”
Land-owners, loggers, soja planters use the discourse of productivity to take
over public lands and territories occupied by traditional peoples - indigenous,
river-side populations, small farmers, and many others. They promote the illegal
occupancy of properties, the devastation of the forests and pastures, the pollution
of waters. At the same time, they do this with the support of the politicians
and the state police using many forms of violence, including intimidations,
slave work and even assassination.
With the communities of Anapu, Sr. Dorothy was developing a new type of agrarian
society, respecting the land as a source of life and helping people live together
in society by preserving the values of solidarity, respect for the environment,
and in producing self-sustainable food. However, this form of life-style challenges
the economic model adapted by Brasil and is seen as an impediment to those who
seek, above everything, immediate profits.
In Anapu, with 90% of the land considered uninhabited, social movements succeeded
in creating some Sustainable Development Projects (SDP), where 600 families
were settled. In these areas, the communities shared equally in the family production
and the forest harvest, with complete respect for the environment. Large land-owners
used all forms of terror and violence to expel these families, culminating with
the prison of peasants and small farmers and ultimately with the death of Sr.
Dorothy.
This vile assassination has had an unusual international repercussion and should
be resolved quickly with the judgment and punishment of those responsible. The
government has already sent more than 2,000 military soldiers to the area. However,
the warning of Sr. Dorothy continues: her appeal to the government, which fell
on deaf ears, to deal with the organized crime in the region, the involvement
of the state authorities and the police in the race and dispute for the domination
of the land, at any price. She warned that all of this was a clear challenge
and confrontation to constitutional authority.
Along with this, in the Brazilian state, we have a Judicial System, whose practices
regarding land questions have been lamentable. A majority of judges have not
implemented the constitutional right regarding the social function of property.
This judicial power has shown itself extremely partial to expedite initial actions
against ownership by peasants and small farmers, and against traditional communities
who have occupied the land for many years. In 2003, 35,292 families were evicted
from the land in this area. Statistics from 2004 indicate the expulsion of another
34,850 families of small farmers.
This same judicial power that is quick to expel peasants and small farmers
is extremely slow to judge crimes committed against them. Of 1,379 deaths in
rural areas registered by the Pastoral Land Commision from 1985-2004, only 75
were judged with the condemnation of 15 instigators of the crimes and 64 executors.
The massacre of Eldorado de Carajas is emblematic of the way in which crimes
against rural workers are treated within the justice system. Of the 154 accused
of the crime, only 2 commanders of the troops were condemned.
The witness of the life of Sr. Dorothy demands that Agrarian Reform truly becomes
a priority of the Federal Government, without fear of the latifundium, and with
the same financial weight that is currently given to agribusiness. The public
lands that have been invaded by land-grabbers should be returned to the legal
settlement groups. Government resources to combat slave labour should be increased
and the agreements with loggers should be suspended along with all of the irregular
plans of forest management.
It is urgent that Congress implement Article 51 of the Congressional Transitional
Order that regulates the examination of donations, sales and concessions of
public lands in the country. It is pressing that Congress put on its agenda
for immediate approval the proposal for a Constitutional Amendment to confiscate
lands in which there is exploitation of slave labor.
In an ecumenical spirit, the churches of Brazil recently launched the “2005
Fraternal Campaign for Peace, Based Upon Justice.” This year, the Pastoral
Land Commission commemorates its 30th anniversary and will celebrate with the
theme “Faithful to the God of the Poor, In Service to the People of the
Land.” Our sister was assassinated for her faithfulness to this God who
took the side of the poor. It was for God that she placed herself radically
at the service of the poor people of Anapu. May our martyr, Sister Dorothy,
today associated with so many of our other martyrs, Dema, Brasilia, Adelaide,
Josimo, Margarida, Gringo and others, whose lives speak so clearly of faithfulness
to the Spirit of God, breathe forth strongly this wind of Justice and Peace,
the same wind that ignited the small candle of Anapu in the heart of the people
of the land, the waters, and the Brazilian people.
URGENT ACTION
Please send this letter to denounce the assassination of Sr. Dorothy Stang
and demanding that the government implement agrarian reform with sustainable
development in the Amazon area. This is an opportunity to end the injustice
and impunity which interferes with the struggle for social justice and peace
in Brazil.
SAMPLE LETTER
YOUR NAME/ADDRESS
Dear________________
I, ________________ would like to express my outrage at the assassination of
Sr. Dorothy Stang in Anapu, Para and denounce the lack of agrarian reform in
Brazil that contributed to Sr. Dorothy´s death. As a person who is dedicated
to justice, I demand an end to the impunity for crimes committed in land disputes
and an end to the illegal logging, slave labour, and violence against small
farmers and indigenous peoples in the Amazon area.
It is the responsibility of the Brazilian Congress and the Justice System to
implement Article 51 of the Congressional Transitional Order that regulates
the examination of donations, sales, and concessions of public lands in the
country.
It is the responsibility of the Judicial System to protect human rights. I
demand that those responsible for the assassination of Sr. Dorothy Stang be
brought to justice. I also demand impartiality on the part of the Justice System
in Para in judging land conflicts.
This is an opportunity to end the injustice and impunity that hinder the struggle
for social justice and peace.
Send to:
Senhor Luis Inacio Lula da Silva
President of the Republic
Praça dos Três Poderes
Palacio do Planalto, 3° andar
70.150-900 Brasilia, DF Brasil
Fax: 61-322-2314
email: pr@planalto.gov.br
Minister of Justice Marcio Thomaz Bastos
Esplanada dos Ministérios, Bloco T, 4° Andar, Sala 400
70064-900 Brasilia, DF Brasil
Fax;61-322-6817
email: gabinetemj@mj.gov.br
Special Secretary of Human Rights - Nilmario Miranda
Esplanada dos Ministerios, Bloco T, 4° Andar, Sala 422
70064-900 Brasilia, DF Brasil
Fax: 61-223-2260
email: nilmario.miranda@sedh.gov.br
President of the High Court of Justice in Para High Court
Judge Maria de Nazareth Braba de Sousa
Tomazia Perdigão 310
66015-260 Belém, Para, Brasil
Fax: 91-212-2922
email: des.maria.brabo@tj.pa.gov.br
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