The battle to save Yanomami's Amazon territory turns deadly

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
2 May 00:21
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Illegal miners resort to violence to defend their ongoing crimes, further killing at least five people who belong to the Yanomami village of Uxiu.

Aerial picture showing an illegal mining camp, known as garimpo, during an operation by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) against Amazon deforestation at the Yanomami territory in Roraima State, Brazil (AFP)

At least five people were killed following 36 hours of fighting in the vast Yanomami territory of the Amazon in light of Brazil's fight to reclaim its largest Indigenous territory from tens of thousands of illegal miners.

The bloodshed reportedly started on Saturday afternoon when unidentified illegal miners attacked the Yanomami village of Uxiu.

Júnior Hekurari, the Yanomami leader, reported that between 15 and 20 heavily armed miners had arrived by boat and started shooting at the residents. Shots were fired at three Yanomami men, ages 36, 31, and 24. The oldest, an Indigenous health worker named Ilson Xiriana, passed away shortly after receiving a shot to the head.

“This barbarity will not go unanswered,” Brazil’s human rights minister, Silvio Almeida, tweeted.

Simultaneously, the government dispatched a high-level delegation of ministers and police chiefs to the region.

As special forces members of the environmental protection group Ibama and the federal highway police (PRF) – the two groups leading the charge against illegal miners – raided an illegal cassiterite and gold field called “Garimpo do Ouro Mil” Sunday, additional violence was reported in another area of the Portugal-sized Yanomami enclave, in which at least four miners were killed. Following their arrival, gunmen—some of whom were outfitted in camouflage fatigues—engaged with the government forces in a number of gunfights.

Three members of Lula's cabinet, including the environment minister Marina Silva, the minister for Indigenous issues Sônia Guajajara, and the health minister Nsia Trindade, traveled to the state of Roraima on Monday, which is home to a sizable portion of the Yanomami territory.

Rodrigo Agostinho, President of Ibama, also flew to the area and informed reporters that Lula had directed him to expedite the evacuation of miners following the incident on Saturday.

Hekurari declared, "Things are tense," adding that the victim's body had been brought back to the Indigenous territory so that customary ceremonies could be performed.

This is happening shortly after six additional Indigenous reserves were decreed by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva last week, the first after such expansion was cut down drastically under his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

The decree guarantees Indigenous people sole access to the natural resources on these territories, which is viewed by scientists as a safeguard against Amazon deforestation; a significant obstacle in the fight against global warming.

Approximately 800,000 Indigenous people reside in Brazil, according to the most recent census, which was conducted in 2010. The majority of them reside on reservations, which make up 13.75 percent of the country's land.