Eldorado dos Carajás (4): MST lawyer laments impunity

16/04/2006 - 20h25

Alessandra Bastos
Special Report

Eldorado dos Carajás (PA) – For ten long years, José Batista, a lawyer for the Landless Rural Worker Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra) (MST) and a member of the coordination of the Land Pastoral Commission (Comissão Pastoral da Terra) (CPT) in the municípality of Marabá in the state of Pará, has beem working on the Carajás Massacre case.

"Even thought 19 landless workers were killed and another 69 wounded, it has been incredibly difficult to get justice done," says Batista. "We are aware of the political interests involved in the case. In my opinion, the behavior of the court itself was questionable, not to mention the government prosecutors in this case. All this works in favor of those who gave the famous order to "clear highway PA-150 at all costs." Well, there just happened to be 1,500 rural workers on that highway that day in 1996 protesting the delays in land reform. We believe that those who gave the order should be punished," said Batista in a Agencia Brasil interview.

"Of course, no one has gone to jail, but the fact that two of the police commanders were found guilty is an enormous advance in the history of Brazilian impunity. Even so, impunity got the victory, as usual. We feel strongly that many others should have been found guilty, as well, but that did not happen. And the historical precedents do not bode well for us. There is the case of two famers who were found guilty [of killing rural workers]. The farmers lost their case on appeal and then they just disappeared. No one can find them, so they have not gone to jail but remain free. It is very difficult for someone to go to jail for these kinds of crimes," said Batista.

"As for the Carajás Massacre, we know that after the highway was cleared there were only six dead. They died in the initial conflict. Then what happened was that the police executed others who were wounded, hiding in the woods because they could not escape. After that the police disfigured the crime scene so that it was impossible to know exactly what had really happened. That is why so many were absolved," declared Batista.

One of the many questions about what happened on April 17, 1996, is who started the conflict. According to Batista, there is no doubt that the police attacked first. "It was not a conflict. From the beginning it was a massacre. The police began firing from about 400 meters. A film was made of the incident and some footage shows the MST moving toward the police. But that was later, after there were already at least two dead on the ground," declared Batista.

Translation: Allen Bennett