Ivan Richard
Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília – The annual balance sheet by the National Forum on Land Reform and Justice in the Countryside for the year 2005, reports that there was a reduction in the number of indigenous reserve areas that the government established (in 2004, there were 24 such areas established; and in 2005, only 8). The forum also reports that 36 Indians were assassinated in Brazil because of land disputes in 2005. And 24 of those deaths occurred in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.

Speaking of Indians in Mato Grosso do Sul: the situation of a group of Guarani-Kaiowá Indians who were forcefully removed from a disputed area last Thursday remains complicated. According to the Indians, the area is part of the Nhande Ru Marangatu indigenous reserve. However, a court ruled that it belonged to white farmers and ordered the Indians to leave. After a police force of some 150 men removed them, they were left on a roadside near the town of Antônio João, 430 kilometers from the state capital of Campo Grande, without the means to go anywhere else.

It is now reported that the Indians number around 900 (consisting of some 200 families). They have been abandoned on the side of the MS-384 highway for almost a week in the middle of the rainy season. The Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI), a Catholic aid organization, says the situation is very difficult.

Translation: Allen Bennett