Guarani-Kaiowá should be ''resettled''

Yara Aquino

Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - Around 400 Guarani-Kaiowá Indians who have been camped out since December 15 alongside the road linking the municipalities of Antônio João and Bela Vista, in Mato Grosso do Sul, may be resettled in a village adjacent to the area where they are presently located. This information comes from the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) adviser in Mato Grosso do Sul, Odenir de Oliveira. "This will provide the Indians with a new arrangement, since they will be able to occupy a much larger area and one that is within Indian territory. It will be very good if this comes about," he judges.

According to Oliveira, the residents of the so-called Rural Village are negotiating the Indians' occupation of the region with the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), through the mediation of the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA).

Oliveira also informed that the minister of the Special Secretariat of Human Rights, Paulo Vannuchi, said he will try to expedite matters. Together with the president of the FUNAI, Mércio Pereira Gomes, and two Federal Police commissioners, the minister participated in a mission to the municipality of Antônio João yesterday (27).

The Indians who are camped out are receiving basic food baskets from the Ministry of Social Development (MDS). Water is supplied through pipes from the Rural Village, but it is not enough to provide for all the needs of the Indians in the locale, the FUNAI adviser observed.

On December 15, after a court decision suspending the demarcation of the Nhande Ru Marangatu territory, the Guarani-Kaiowá Indians were evicted by the Federal Police in Mato Grosso do Sul. On December 25, Dorvalino da Rocha, an Indian, was murdered in the region, exacerbating the tense atmosphere existing between the Guarani-Kaiowás and the local landowners who succeeded in obtaining the action of ejectment.

Translation: David Silberstein