Beth Begonha
Reporter Rádio Nacional da Amazônia

Brasília – Yesterday the president of the Indian Foundation (Fundação Nacional do Índio) (Funai), Mércio Gomes Pereira, announced that seven rice farmers who remain inside the Indian reserve of Raposa Serra do Sol in the state of Roraima, will have to leave the area. Pereira explained that on April 15 the twelve-month grace period the farmers were given to harvest their crops and vacate the reserve will end (April 16 is Indian Day in Brazil). In an interview with Radio Nacional da Amazonia, Pereira also made a point of emphasizing that the Indian reserve area of Raposa Serra do Sol was approved and ratified by both president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the Supreme Court and that the decision was final. The time for the farmers to leave is now, he concluded.

The Raposa Serra do Sol reserve area is occupied by some 14,000 Indians of the Macuxi, Ingaricó, Patamona, Tauretang and Wapichana groups.

Translation: Allen Bennett