Brazil
19.07.01
Urgent Interventions
Brazil: arbitrary detention of 37 rural workers in Aurora de Pará
Case BRA 190701
The International Secretariat of OMCT has just been informed of the arbitrary detention of 37 rural workers, and of the inhuman conditions of their detention in Aurora de Pará.
According to the information received from diverse sources, including the “Movement of the Rural Landless Workers” (Movimento dos Sem Terra-MST) of the State of Pará, on June 26th 2001, 37 workers were detained after the evacuation of the Chão de Estrelas Farm by the civil police of the department dealing in agrarian conflicts.
It would appear that the detained workers were transferred from the Aurora camp to the Mãe do Rio police station where they were confined in an alley one meter high and 5 meters long, with practically no ventilation. Furthermore, they received neither food nor drink and had no access to sanitary facilities. This was further aggravated by the fact that five of the workers were suffering from dysentery and, not having access to sanitary facilities, were forced to relieve themselves in the small space they shared with the other detainees, thus causing a problem of hygiene, unpleasant odours and a risk of an epidemic.
Furthermore, the next morning the detainees had still not received any food or drinking water, nor had access to sanitary facilities. Because of the narrow alley to which they were confined, some of them were moved to the station yard.
According to the information received, after 24 hours in detention, Mr. José Alcántara, the police chief, had still not decided what to do with the detainees. That afternoon, lawyers, activists and MST leaders, together with religious leaders and the press demonstrated against the detention and the conditions of the detainees, as a result of which the police chief was forced to free 35 of the 37 detainees since there were no charges against them.
The other two MST militants arrested on 26th June, Mrs. Maria dos Anjos de Souza and her son João Batista de Souza, were transferred to São Miguel do Guamã police station where they are still being detained.
On the other hand, three MST leaders are also in jail. Mr. Eurival Martins Carvalho (“Totô”) was detained by a plain-clothes policeman accompanied by an armed man who was apparently not a policeman. They threatened him at gunpoint, demanding that he “confess all the crimes that he had committed”. This torture lasted several minutes and the next day Totô was transferred to the Regional Police Station of Marabá, together with Mr. Jorge Luiz Rodrigues and Mr. Raimundo Nonato Coelho de Souza who had been in preventive detention since 22nd June 2001, on the orders of the district judge of Aurora do Pará.
The preventive detention was ordered by the chief of Police José Alcántara on charges of incitation to crime, public encouragement of crime, association of evil-doers for illegal purposes and disobedience. The police chief Alcántara backed his accusations and demand for preventive detention with seven cuttings from national newspapers published between April and June 2001, containing comments by the five accused persons about the negotiations between the MST and the INCRA, about the food situation in the camp and the cases of dysentery and malaria, despite which the preventive detention took place.
The International Secretariat of OMCT shares the concern over the violence perpetrated against the MST workers struggling for the rights of thousands of landless peasants in Brazil and recalls that approximately 730 homicides of rural workers have taken place in the State of Pará in the last 20 years, over 50 of which in the last five years.
Geneva, July 19th 2001
The International Secretariat of OMCT has just been informed of the arbitrary detention of 37 rural workers, and of the inhuman conditions of their detention in Aurora de Pará.
According to the information received from diverse sources, including the “Movement of the Rural Landless Workers” (Movimento dos Sem Terra-MST) of the State of Pará, on June 26th 2001, 37 workers were detained after the evacuation of the Chão de Estrelas Farm by the civil police of the department dealing in agrarian conflicts.
It would appear that the detained workers were transferred from the Aurora camp to the Mãe do Rio police station where they were confined in an alley one meter high and 5 meters long, with practically no ventilation. Furthermore, they received neither food nor drink and had no access to sanitary facilities. This was further aggravated by the fact that five of the workers were suffering from dysentery and, not having access to sanitary facilities, were forced to relieve themselves in the small space they shared with the other detainees, thus causing a problem of hygiene, unpleasant odours and a risk of an epidemic.
Furthermore, the next morning the detainees had still not received any food or drinking water, nor had access to sanitary facilities. Because of the narrow alley to which they were confined, some of them were moved to the station yard.
According to the information received, after 24 hours in detention, Mr. José Alcántara, the police chief, had still not decided what to do with the detainees. That afternoon, lawyers, activists and MST leaders, together with religious leaders and the press demonstrated against the detention and the conditions of the detainees, as a result of which the police chief was forced to free 35 of the 37 detainees since there were no charges against them.
The other two MST militants arrested on 26th June, Mrs. Maria dos Anjos de Souza and her son João Batista de Souza, were transferred to São Miguel do Guamã police station where they are still being detained.
On the other hand, three MST leaders are also in jail. Mr. Eurival Martins Carvalho (“Totô”) was detained by a plain-clothes policeman accompanied by an armed man who was apparently not a policeman. They threatened him at gunpoint, demanding that he “confess all the crimes that he had committed”. This torture lasted several minutes and the next day Totô was transferred to the Regional Police Station of Marabá, together with Mr. Jorge Luiz Rodrigues and Mr. Raimundo Nonato Coelho de Souza who had been in preventive detention since 22nd June 2001, on the orders of the district judge of Aurora do Pará.
The preventive detention was ordered by the chief of Police José Alcántara on charges of incitation to crime, public encouragement of crime, association of evil-doers for illegal purposes and disobedience. The police chief Alcántara backed his accusations and demand for preventive detention with seven cuttings from national newspapers published between April and June 2001, containing comments by the five accused persons about the negotiations between the MST and the INCRA, about the food situation in the camp and the cases of dysentery and malaria, despite which the preventive detention took place.
The International Secretariat of OMCT shares the concern over the violence perpetrated against the MST workers struggling for the rights of thousands of landless peasants in Brazil and recalls that approximately 730 homicides of rural workers have taken place in the State of Pará in the last 20 years, over 50 of which in the last five years.
Geneva, July 19th 2001