Brasília, 6/25/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The national coordinator of the Landless Rural Worker Movement (MST), João Paulo Rodrigues, says that property invasions will continue because the group is not willing to wait for the finalization of a Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva government land reform plan. According to Rodrigues, there are 90,000 families camped out around the country who need settlement lots immediately. Last weekend there were 18 property invasions in the state of Pernambuco.
The MST says it wants the government to present a land reform plan that will be fulfilled. "We believe this should be done urgently because so far in the Lula government not a single family has been settled," said Rodrigues. He added that he considers the scheduled meeting with president Lula in the second week of July important, but that there would be no truce. "Property invasions will be reduced only when land reform settlements take place," he said.
Minister of Agrarian Development, Miguel Rossetto, said he disagreed with MST numbers. Acording to the minister, since the beginning of the year 3,000 families have been settled and there are preparations to settle another 7,000, following the expropriation of some 200,000 hectares. "That is the way things go at the beginning of a new government," he said, pointing out that the law prohibits using invaded properties for land reform. "Of course, you can always change a law," he added, explaining that the government is attempting to work out these problems.
President Lula himself is aware of the need to draw up a land reform plan. "Land reform is a dream, a desire, and it is also the moral, ethical and political commitment of my life and my government. We know that this is an enormous problem. We know how to resolve the problem and we know we have to work to do so," says the president. But he also explains that you have to deal with this problem one thing at a time. Many mistakes can be made when you get into a rush. "Other governments can make a mistake and it is just a mistake. My government cannot do that," said the president, adding that minister Rossetto will soon present a land reform plan. (AB)
