Linked with Maninha Xukuru-Kariri – Brazil (1966 – 2006), with The World Rainforest Movement WRM, with Aracruz Celulose and the World Cup: propaganda and deforestation, and with Indigenous representatives campaign in Europe.
See also: Table of indigenous organisations of Brazil, and Alert against the Green Desert Movement, and Promoting the Rights, Voices and Visions of Indigenous Peoples, and Texts about Economy and Indigenous Peoples, and Indigenous Webs for Information, and Texts about Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights, and definition of what Indigenous Peoples are, on wikipedia
and ciesin.org.
The Forum for the Defense of Indigenous Rights / Articulação dos Povos e Organizações Indígenas do Nordeste, Minas Gerais e Espírito Santo APOINME, is created, July 05, 2004
Comprised of the Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira – Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazonia – (Coiab), the Associação Brasileira de Antropologia – Brazilian Anthropology Association – (ABA), the Comissão Pró-Yanomami – Pro-Yanomami Commission – (CCPY), the Centro de Trabalho Indigenista – Center of Indigenist Work – (CTI), the Conselho Indigenista Missionário – Missionary Indigenist Council – (Cimi) and the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), the forum was launched last week with the intention of combating the Administration’s inertia.
The Fórum de Defesa dos Direitos Indígenas / Fórum for the Defense of Indigenous Rights – was defined as a space of persistence and resistance in the defense of the indigenous rights by the Federal Prosecutor of the Republic, Cláudio Fonteles.
He, along with the Assistant Federal Prosecutor of the Republic and coordinator of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office’s 6th Chamber of Coordination and Revision of Indigenous Communities and Minorities, Débora Duprat, and federal Representative Eduardo Valverde (Worker’s Party/Rondônia), of the Frente Parlamentar em Defesa dos Direitos Indígenas – Parliamentary Front for the Defense of Indigenous Rights –, was part of the opening board of the event in which was launched the most recent initiative of indigenous and indigenist organizations for the defense of the rights of the indigenous peoples, which was held last Wednesday (June 23) at the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, in Brasília.
Débora Duprat, one of the forum’s main stimulators, defined it as a space where the Indians may recover for themselves the role the Constitution grants them. She appointed indigenous health and mining within Indigenous Lands as the topics that should be chosen as the group’s most immediate concerns. And indeed they were, along with the demarcation of Indigenous Lands. The Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira – Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazonia – (Coiab) is in charge of the forum’s Executive Secretariat.
“ISA’s expectation regarding the Fórum is that it will open a consistent channel for a dialogue with the current Administration, which, after a year and a half, still does not have an Indian policy”, pointed out Márcio Santilli, of the Instituto Socioambiental’s Board of Directors. In Santilli’s view, the present moment is one of a reactionary movement on the part of the ruling classes, which includes efforts to block indigenous rights, to restrict the power of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and to criminalize the Movimento dos Sem Terra – Movement of the Landless Peasants – (MST) and the non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Regarding the Indigenous Lands, Júlio Macuxi, of the Conselho Indígena de Roraima – Roraima Indigenous Council – (CIR), considers that the situation of the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land, in the State of Roraima, which has been ready for ratification since the beginning of the current Administration’s term and whose postponement has made possible several initiatives for the chopping up of the area, mirrors the lack of commitment on the part of the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary towards Indians. The defense of the ratification of the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Lands in a continuous area was, by the way, one of the three motions approved in the 24th Meeting of the Brazilian Association of Anthropology, held between June 12 and 15 in Recife, which were read during the event by ABA’s president, Gustavo Lins Ribeiro.
Gilberto Azanha, director of the Centro de Trabalho Indigenista – Center of Indigenist Work – (CTI), said that his expectation regarding the forum is to get President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s commitment to the inviolability of the Indigenous Lands and to the alteration of the Administration’s Indian policy.
Davi Yanomami, on the other hand, expressed his displeasure and concern with the way the President has been conducting the question of the exploration of natural resources within Indigenous Lands by non-Indians and denounced the existence of 520 mining concerns ready to enter Yanomami land. “Indigenous rights are our rights, not only the Indians’. Ensuring those rights helps to build a Brazil for all”, declared Archbishop Luciano Mendes de Almeida, of the Conselho Missionário Indigenista – Missionary Indigenist Council – (Cimi).
Also took part in the event Bishop Tomás Balduino, of the Comissão Pastoral da Terra – Land Pastoral Commission – (CPT); Jecinaldo Cabral, Coiab’s general coordinator; Agnaldo Pataxó Hã-hã-hãe, representative of the Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Nordeste, Minas Gerais e Espírito Santo – Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of the Northeast, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo – (Apoinme); and Jô Oliveira, of the Comissão Pró-Yanomami – Pro-Yanomami Commission, among others. (Instituto Socioambiental, July 05,2004).