Brazilian Supreme Court warns of civil war in Amazon region!
BRASILIA, Brazil - August 5, 2008 -
Deep in the northernmost reaches of the Amazon jungle, a land conflict between
rice farmers and a handful of Indian tribes has turned so violent that the
country's Supreme Court warns it could escalate into civil war.
The court is expected to decide in August if the government can keep evicting rice farmers from a 4.2 million acre (1.7 million hectare) Indian reservation decreed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2005. The evictions were stopped in April when rice farmers started burning bridges and blockading roads, and justices said they feared a "veritable civil war."
The court's decision could help determine the future of the Amazon, whose remaining jungles provide a critical cushion against global warming. It could also redefine Brazil's policy toward its Indians at a time of frequent confrontations, as the country spends billions of dollars opening roads, building dams and promoting agribusiness across the world's largest remaining tropical wilderness.
Unlike in most other Latin American countries, where indigenous people are fighting for rights in mainstream society, most of Brazil's Indians continue to live in the jungle and maintain their languages and traditions. These Indians have fought for decades to keep or regain their ancestral lands.
Top military generals warn that too much land in Indian hands, especially along Brazil's borders, threatens national security and could lead to tribes unilaterally declaring themselves independent nations. They compare the situation to Kosovo, which broke away from Serbia in February.
At a raucous seminar on national sovereignty at Rio de Janeiro's Military Club, the head of Army's Amazon command, General Augusto Heleno Pereira, attacked the federal government's indigenous policy as "regretful and chaotic." He even suggested that the army would refuse to remove the settlers.
