Brasília, July 4, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The families that are part of the Landless Workers Movement (MST), camped out in Pernambuco, began to receive basic food baskets from the Zero Hunger Program, today. The Ministry of Food Security will distribute around 50 tons of food products to people in the encampments who were not enrolled with the National Institute of Settlement and Agrarian Reform (Incra). Next week, the Ministry will iniciate the distribution of another 50 tons, sufficient for 183 thousand basic food baskets.

The distribution of food products to landless workers is a measure taken by the government to try to alleviate the tension in rural areas and contain the wave of looting directed at trucks that transport food products in Pernambuco. Leaders of the movement attribute the violence to delays in the distribution of basic food baskets. In one of the camps, 16 thousand food baskets were supposed to arrive, but only 2 thousand were delivered this morning.

According to the Ministry of Food Security, figures on the total number of families camped out and the number of food baskets needed were provided by the workers themselves to Incra, in February, 2002. Up to now, the government has already taken care of the 113,909 families on the Incra list, to whom 182,268 basic food baskets have been delivered. However, the number of movement members who are camped out has risen to 140 thousand families.

The head of the Presidential Advisory Staff, Minister José Dirceu, affirmed yesterday that the government will include those who are camped out in the Food Card program, which envisions the transfer of R$ 50 for each family affected by drought. Dirceu also announced that settlement residents will receive incentive credits for small properties.

Part of the foodstuffs included in the food baskets delivered to the landless comes from donations received by the Zero Hunger program and distributed by the National Supply Company (Conab). One of the activities included in the program is the emergency distribution of food baskets to those who live in encampments, Indians, and families of descendents of runaway slaves. (DAS)