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UN Calls Murder of Brazilian Tribal Chief 'Reprehensible'

VOA News

   The U.N. human rights chief calls the murder of the leader of Brazil's
   indigenous Wajapi tribe "reprehensible" and demands the Brazilian
   government respect the integrity of indigenous territories.

   "The Brazilian government's proposed policy to open up more areas of
   the Amazon to mining could lead to incidents of violence, intimidation
   and killings," Michelle Bachelet said Monday. "When indigenous people
   are pushed off their lands, it is not just an economic issue. As the
   U.N Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples makes clear, it
   affects their entire way of life."

   The body of Wajapi chief Emrya Wajapi was found in a river last week.
   The tribe controls part of Brazil's northern Amapa state.

   The Brazilian government set aside part of the state in the 1980s for
   the use of 800,000 tribespeople.

   But Brazil's new far right president Jair Bolsonaro has called on other
   nations to exploit what he calls the "absurd quantity of minerals" in
   the Amazon rainforest, despite the irreversible environmental damage
   such actions could bring.

   Bolsonaro is supported by Brazilian logging, mining, and farming
   industries whose interest in the Amazon could lead to a "new wave of
   violence aimed at scaring people off their ancestral lands," Bachelet
   warns.

   The 2007 U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples says such
   populations "shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or
   territories, their environments shall be protected, and any relocations
   that are absolutely necessary can only take place with their free and
   informed consent."