wfn.org | Brazilian Lutheran church backs indigenous land rights

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Situation brought to attention of European churches

BRASILIA, Brazil/GENEVA, 16 April 1998 (lwi) - The Mission Among Indians
Council (COMIN) of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in
Brazil (IECLB), has appealed to Brazilian minister of justice, Iris
Rezende, calling on the government to respect the land rights of the
Tupinquim and Guaranis indigenous people.

The COMIN statement, according to the Latin American and Caribbean
Communication Agency (ALC), refers to a controversial decision by the
ministry of justice that turned the better part of a 13,500-hectare
(33,359-acre) tract of land over to a Swedish cellulose firm. The land was
recognized by the National State Indian Foundation (FUNAI) as belonging to
1,470 Tupinquim and Guaranis indigenous people from the State of Espirito
Santo. In addition, the COMIN protested against the police blockade
surrounding the land occupied by the Indians as well as the illegal arrest
of a Dutch Catholic missionary who worked among the Tupinquim and Guaranis.

The Lutheran church synod of Espirito Santo has informed the Church of
Sweden and other European churches about the recent events that involve the
Swedish firm and indigenous people from the state. Representatives of
churches, base communities and political parties have been prevented from
entering the area and expressing their solidarity with the affected
indigenous people. Keeping church representatives, grassroots movements,
unions and political parties from entering the area, says the IECLB's
letter to the European churches, actualizes "a violent practice of state
intervention that the Brazilian people were submitted to under the military
dictatorship and which is incompatible with a rule of law."

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Lutheran World Information
Editorial Assistant: Janet Bond-Nash
E-mail: jbn@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/