Sister Dorothy Stang One Of 1,400 Murdered In Amazon Land Fights Since '85

[hatrack]

EDIT

"In Anapú, as elsewhere across the state of Para, loggers and ranchers are pitched in an often deadly fight against small farmers and environmentalists. The deforestation and the development of ranches all around Anapú show which side is winning. Sister Dorothy's case was far from unique: since 1985 1,400 people have been murdered in land disputes - half of them in Para. Death threats have become a way of life. "They apparently have lists of those they want to kill," said Sister Mary Gillespie, another nun from the order, sitting in the front room of Sister Dorothy's humble, green-painted wooden house.

Francisco de Assis dos Santos Souza knows all too well about threats. The 36-year-old, known as Chiquinho, is president of the local branch of the Rural Workers Union, which worked with Sister Dorothy to stop the illegal occupation of land set aside for the poor. Before the latest murder, Chiquinho had received plenty of threats. Two days after his friend was shot, he received a letter that read, "Dorothy has been killed - you are next". When Chiquinho spoke to The Independent at the union's simple headquarters - really nothing more than a shed - a thick-set armed policeman sat next to him. He has apparently been instructed never to leave his side. "When you are against the financial interests you are a target," he said, explaining that the small farmers had no way to resist the intimidation of the land thieves, orgrileiros from the Portuguese word for cricket. But here the crickets carry guns o arrive at the homes of peasants shaking handfuls of ammunition. "The small ones cannot say no. If they do they eat bullets."

Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva, Brazil's President, hoped to put an end to such violence. In a country where the poorest 20 per cent own just 2 per cent of the wealth, Lula campaigned during the 2002 election as a champion of environmental protection and promised to provide land for 400,000 landless peasants. Despite the devastating recession he inherited, he was also critical of taking international loans from groups such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). So far Lula has failed to match rhetoric with deeds. Rather, say analysts, he has had to confront the political reality of Brazil's recession and the pressure for growth. As a result, instead of acting convincingly to protect the rainforest, he at least tacitly encouraged the development of it. In the days after the killing, Lula announced new logging restrictions and the establishment of 8.2 million acres (12,850 sq miles) of new reserve. But nothing has altered the pressure to maintain economic growth and to maintain the jobs that the ranchers and others provide.

Though he was opposed to an IMF loan, Lula inherited a decision made by his predecessor to take the $30bn (£16bn) loan, which came with a series of stringent austerity demands and a requirement for Brazil to control the ratio between public debt and GDP, as well as to pay off its huge international debts. Last year Brazil's economy grew by 5.2 per cent. The Amazon is inextricably linked with Brazil's economy. Logging may only account for a fraction of Brazil's export earnings, but the rainforest is also a source of gold and minerals and, more importantly, has provided much of the land for the recent expansion in cattle production and agriculture. Agriculture, including the rapid increase in soy bean production, is now a $150bn business and accounts for more than 40 per cent ofexports. Meanwhile, the country last year overtook the US as the world's biggest producer of beef. Annual overseas sales of beef earns Brazil $2.5bn. A recent paper by the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, the independent, inter-American think-tank, said: "The issue are interdependent and unfortunately, one's success is the other's loss." Around 15 per cent of Brazil's total external debt is owed to the IMF. When The Independent contacted the fund, a spokesman scoffed at the suggestion that fiscal requirements attached to its loan, such as the need for Brazil to produce a primary surplus of 4 per cent, in any way contributed to the struggle over land use in the rainforest. William Murray, a spokesman, said any such a suggestion was "outrageous" and "harebrained". He said Brazil's economy was widely diversified and the country's "economic growth not significantly linked to logging". "Deforestation is not something we support. It never has been."

Others see the situation differently. Carlos Rittl, a Brazilian-based Greenpeace campaigner, said there were historically two important debts faced by the Lula administration. "One is the international debt and the other is the social debt," he said. "Both are very important but it seems the international one is more urgent. This causes all the problems we face in the Amazon. Policies to pay external debts promote the development of agriculture and cattle ranching, which are quickly advancing into the heart of the Amazon. This is increasing forest destruction and causing social disruption."

EDIT

http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=40367