Call # 247 March 2002

In April 1996, in Eldorado dos Carajas (State of Pará), the Brazilian police force shooted at a farmers’ demonstration from the Landless Rural Workers Movement (Mouvement des Sans Terre = MST). Consequence: 19 dead among which a 3 year-old child.

In August 1999, in Belém, the trial of the three officers who were in command of the Military Police operation took place. Consequence: acquittal of the three accused.

Families of the victims, the MST and organizations for the Defense of Human Rights were astonished. It was such a scandal that Brazilian federal political authorities claimed for a cancellation of the trial. A long juridical battle then started. The judgment, which was firstly set on 28th May, then on 18th June 1999, was delayed once again. It has now just been set on 8th April 2002, in the State of Pará, while the MST was mobilizing for the offences to Human Rignts to be judged at a federal level (i.e. far from pressure groups organized by great landowners who influence the decisions of local judges).

On 17th April 1996, in Eldorado de Carajas, 1500 landless farmers launched a 700 km march towards Belém. Since the beginning of the year, they are camping next to an uncultivated property that the I.N.C.R.A. (Federal Agency in charge of the land reform) has to commandeer. Because they were fed up with waiting in vain for the I.N.C.R.A. to answer, the farmers decided to go to Belém to show their dissatisfaction. The governor of Pará immediatly sent a detachment from the Military Police on the spot. An altercation broke out with the demonstrators. Police officers brutally raked the crowd with machine guns. There were 19 dead among which 13 were killed with bladed weapons after they were made prisonners. Among hundreds of injured people, 64 people were seriously injured. Two of them were inflicted fatal injuries.

First juridical battle

The majority of the 154 accused police officers live and work in Marabá. According to the Office of Public Prosecutor, a fair trial could not take place in good conditions in this town; it therefore asked for it to be transferred to the criminal court of Belém. The MST and Brazilian farmers’ organizations called for an international campaign to support this demand. Réseau-Solidarité also did (Call n°198 - December 1998).

Thanks to the appeal to the Federal Supreme Court, the trial was tranferred to Belém where it was claimed that the trial would be judged with more impartiality. But in August 1999, when the trial was opened, the judicial power of the State of Pará showed its true face to the whole of the world: the three officers who were in command of the police operation in Eldorado dos Carajas on 17th April 1996 were acquitted by the jury of Belém on 20th August 1999.

The acquittal aroused reactions

The Office of Public Prosecutor, represented by the Prosecutor Marco Aurélio Nascimento then raised suspicion objections against the judge Ronaldo Vale. Besides, the Office of Public Prosecutor of the State totally approved him.

The President of the Republic, M. Fernando Henrique Cardoso and the State Secretary of Human Rights, M. José Grégori, were also preoccupied by the judgment and by impartiality.

A campaign all over Brazil and beyond the borders then started to obtain the cancellation of this shamefull and dangerous judgment. Réseau-Solidarité mobilized once again (Call n°211 - september 1999). The cancellation was accepted; a new trial could therefore be opened.

Judicial strategy

The MST quickly drew lessons from the first trial of the massacre of Carajas. According to the farmers’ organization, it is necessary, at all costs, to prevent the great landowners from putting pressure on the judges of the States of Brazil, particularly on those from the State of Pará. The MST therefore asked the senate and the National Congress of Brazil to pass a new law that would transfer criminal jurisdiction against Human Rights to the Federal Justice, " for impartiality to be stronger during the trial procedure which involve serious violations of human beings ".

This approach had already begun when the pace of judicial events strangely quickened. The judge Eva do Amaral Coêlho in charge of the case was far from having proved in the past she had nothing to do with the great landowners. She outstripped the MST by calling up the court on 28th May 2001, then on 18th June 2001. Moreover, the judge removed from the file of the trial the result of the expert evidence realised by specialists of Unicamp (University of Campinas, State of São Paulo). This expert evidence realised from a film of the massacre, clearly showed that when the events took place, the Military Police opened fire, whereas police experts maintained the opposite.

In face of the mobilization of the MST and of the civil society, the judge had to take a step backward. She decided to order a second expert opinion: the trial was therefore delayed.

Three years later, the approaches of the MST for the transfer of jurisdiction to the Federal Criminal Justice against Human Rights were dragged on. Suppression resumed with renewed vigour in the State of Pará. Since 28th January 2002, 14 persons from the grass roots militants of the MST have been imprisonned in the town of Mãe do Rio in inacceptable sanitary conditions. They were arrested because they were occupying a large unexploited property, and are now in prison without any visible cause. The judge in charge of the case justified her refusal of their claim for habeas corpus: they were not possessing identity cards.

They are actually the hostages of the trial of the people in charge of the massacre of Carajas. Their detention is a way to restrict the extent of possible demonstrations of the MST. A new date was set on 8th April 2002 to judge in turn the main four officers in charge, the 17 law-ranking officers and the 129 soldiers involved in the massacre.

Could this be a way to confuse the issue?

In face of the pressure put by great landowners on the judge Eva do Amaral Coêlho, it is necessary to strongly remind the preoccupation of the organizations defending Human Rights for justice not to be influenced. Réseau-Solidarité has followed this case since it began and now goes on mobilizing for the persons in charge of the massacre of Carajas to be punished.

For more information...

" Caros Amigos Especial "

In order to prepare the mobilization for the trial of Carajas, the editorial committee of Info Terra and Frères des Hommes France published in French a special issue of the Brazilian magazine Caros Amigos. This magazine describes in an almost exhaustive way the sequence of events and enables us to work out the judicial challenges. It gives precise facts about the first trial, which had ended up with the acquittal of the persons in charge of the massacre.

Caros Amigos (32 pages) 4 euros, port compris

To be ordered at: Réseau-Solidarité 10 quai de Richemont 35000 RENNES

NAME : ........................................................................................

Surname : .........................................................................................

Address ...........................................................................................

...........................................................................................

 would like to receive the French version of Caros Amigos and pay the sum of .........euros

Write to...

Dra. Eva do Amaral Coelho

Juiza de Direito da 1a Vara Penal da Capital

Presidenta do 1° Tribunal de Júri

Largo de São João, s/n

Bairro Cidade Velha

66015-260 Belém PA BRAZIL

e-mail: ecoelho@tje.pa.gov.br

TEXT suggested (this text is only a suggestion, you can adapt it to your own style)

Senhora Juíza,

Informado pelo Réseau-Solidarité (10, quai de Richemont 35000 RENNES - France) manifesto minha preocupação relativo ao julgamento dos responsáveis do massacre de Eldorado dos Carajás

Espero que, sob a presidência da Senhora, este julgamento se realizará de maneira imparcial.

O mundo inteiro está acompanhando este acontecimento histórico e espera que os responsáveis do massacre serão julgados de maneira exemplar.

Atenciosamente

(signature)

TRANSLATION

Dear Judge,

I am very much preoccupied by the judgment of the massacre of Eldorado dos Carajás, which should take place on 8th April 2002.

I hope that you will make sure that the trial takes place in a great impartiality.

The whole world is staring at this historical event and is waiting for the persons in charge of the massacre of the 19 farmers to be judged as a warning to others.

Yours truly

(signature)