Brasília, October 13, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The suggestion made on Thursday (9) by Asma Jahangir, UN special envoy to investigate summary executions in Brazil, that the UN should conduct a similar inspection of the Brazilian Judiciary provoked a crisis between the judicial and executive branches, at least on a verbal level, for the time being. The exchange involved presidents of courts and the head of the Presidential Civilian Advisory Staff, Minister José Dirceu, and provided space, as well, for ministers of the Judiciary to let off steam and complain about President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's "antipathy."
The president of the Federal Labor Court (TST), Francisco Fausto, said on Friday (10) that representatives of the judicial branch will oppose any inspection, even if it is backed by the President. "If necessary, we shall recommend to all labor courts that they not allow any meddling by UN agents."
Fausto termed "unfortunate" the support that Jahangir's idea received from President Lula, whom he accused of ill will towards the Judiciary. "His relationship with the Judiciary is not the best," he affirmed. In the minister's view, Lula has a "gripe" with the president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Maurício Corrêa. "But this should be confined to the plane of personal relations," he completed.
Corrêa, who was in Porto Alegre, complained in turn that President Lula does not greet him on the occasions when they meet, such as at the September 7 parade. "A mix-up is occurring between the degree of antipathy he might feel towards someone and his institutional duty." Corrêa also considered the UN special envoy's suggestion "inadequate, inopportune, and unfortunate."
Faust went so far as to quote a statement made by Lula in April, in a speech in Vitôria, in which he referred to the need to open the "black box of the Judiciary." "They appear to want to show that the Judiciary has sore spots or black boxes that should be exposed, which is untrue, since the Brazilian Judiciary is absolutely transparent," the president of the TST declared.
The debate transcended the question of the relationship between branches of government. Fausto argued that an eventual inspection "affects the Brazilian State itself" and "interferes with national sovereignty." Minister José Dirceu minimized the differences and said on Friday, in Brasília, that "what is taking place is a tempest in a teapot." He defended the need to "reform" Brazil's institutions and, to this end, "work together with international institutions."
For the Minister, an eventual inspection does not damage Brazilian sovereignty. "Brazil is a signatory of an International Criminal Court; therefore, in its international relations, provided its sovereignty, its Constitution, and the autonomy and independence of the Judicary are preserved, it must dialogue, listen, and report to international bodies, without doing harm to either the country's sovereignty or the independence of the government branches."
He added that "if every discussion (like this one) provokes this type of reaction, we shall not have democracy in the country." And he concluded: "Should we hide our heads in the sand and claim that torture, human rights violations, and assassinations don't exist in Brazil?"
SUPPORT FOR THE COURTS
Institutions linked to the Judiciary manifested support for the declarations made by Fausto, Corrêa, and Nilson Naves, president of the Federal Appeals Court (STJ), who also expressed his opposition on Friday to Jahangir's suggestion. The Federal Judiciary Council, a body that congregates the Brazilian Federal Justice system, released a note on the question. The text was signed by minister Ari Pargendler, general coordinator of the Federal Justice system. State magistrates' associations also registered their support.
The acting president of the Brazilian Bar Association, Roberto Antônio Busato, said, Friday, that "the chronic problems" of the Judiciary "are our problems, Brazilian ones, and it is up to us to resolve them." In his opinion, Jahangir's proposal "has no logic and wounds national sovereignty." To the UN reporter's justification that the Brazilian judicial system is inefficient in containing violence in the country, Busato parries that the origin of this problem is in the "greediness of speculative capital."
For him, international financial agencies are worried about the Brazilian Judiciary, since its decisions "affect the reserves set aside to pay the excoriating interest rates on our debt." He suggests that, instead of a mission to inspect the Judiciary, the debt be investigated.
The recommendation that Jahangir plans to present to the UN was aired on Thursday (9) in Brasília, during a collective interview she conceded after a meeting that lasted nearly two hours with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The meeting concluded the special envoy's Brazilian mission, which began on September 16.
On Thursday, in Santo Antônio de Jesus (BA), the mechanic, Gerson Jesus Bispo, 26 years old, was executed. Bispo had been a witness to the actions of death squads and had given a deposition to the UN reporter on September 20. Two weeks earlier, the farm worker, Flávio Manuel da Silva, 33, another witness who had spoken with Jahangir, was assassinated in Pedras do Fogo (PB), on the border between Pernambuco and Paraíba. (DAS)
