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Morgen solidariteitsactie ambassade Paraguay
grr - 28.06.2005 13:53
DODELIJKE ONTUIMING IN EEN BOERENGEMEENSCHAP IN PARAGUAY
Dit is een oproep voor een solidariteitsactie met de boeren in Paraguay. Op vrijdag 24 juni heeft er sterke repressie plaatsgevonden in de boeren nederzetting Tekojoja, die onderdeel uitmaakt van de MCNOC (nationaal coordinatie platform van boerenorganisaties).
Braziliaanse GM soja producenten hebben de boerengemeenschap Tekojoja, 70 km van de stad Caaguazu, aangevallen onder bescherming van de politie en het leger. Het resultaat van de landontruiming was: 54 platgebrande huizen, vernietigde oogsten, vijf zwaargewonden en 130 arrestanten. Ook zijn twee mannen vermoord: Angel Cristaldo (20 jaar) en Leopoldo ToRres (49 jaar).
Dit is een van de vele landontruimingen die in Paraguay plaatsvinden. Met de uitbreiding van de soja plantages worden steeds meer boeren van hun land verdreven. Tekojoja is een van de nederzettingen die drie jaar gelden opgericht zijn door de landhervorming van de huidige regering Nicanor Duartse Frutos. Echter, veel van deze gebieden zijn weer in handen gekomen van grootgrondbezitteres door illegale en corrupte manoeuvres.
Behalve de landontruimingen, zorgen ook het massale gebruik van bestrijdingsmiddelen voor doden in Paraguay. Twee jaar geleden overleed Silvino Talavero, een jongetje van 11 jaar, als gevolg van een besproeiing met soja bestrijdingsmiddelen. De zaak tegen de twee vertantwoordelijke sojaproducenten bereikte het hoogste gerechtshof en 7 juni van dit jaar zou het proces opnieuw beginnen. Deze werd echter vervolgens weer opgeschort.
Om tegen de schending van mensenrechten en de straffeloosheid te protesteren, roepen wij op om woensdag 29 juni om 16 uur naar de Paraguayaanse ambassade in Den Haag aan de Javastraat 44 te komen. Verder vragen we om deze informatie te verspreiden, de situatie daar te volgen en mensenrechten waarnemers naar Paraguay te zenden.
STOP DE STRAFFELOOSHEID
STRAF VOOR DE VERANTWOORDELIJKEN
GERECHTIGHEID VOOR ALLE MENSEN IN PARAGUAY
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| Read more about: natuur, dier en mens vrijheid, repressie & mensenrechten | | supplements | | | massacre in paraguay | javiera rulli - 28.06.2005 22:45
A little-reported story from Paraguay on an eviction of peasants from contested lands by the private gunmen of local big land-owners (apparently Brazilians), backed up by the army and police. It is the biotech opponents who are distributing this news, as the landowners are seeking to plant genetically-modified soy. As we recently noted, there is a growing US military presence in Paraguay at the moment. It is ostensibly there to train and back up Paraguayan security forces in a crackdown on supposed Islamic terror networks in the country, but here is an ugly taste of how the new prowess could be used. Our friend Javiera Rulli of Argentina's Grupo de Reflexion Rural (GRR) provides this report:
Massacre in Caaguazu -PARAGUAY
Brazilian genetically modified (GM) soy growers protected by the police and military in Paraguay attacked last Friday (24/06/05) a peasant community, TEKOJOJA, in the department of Caaguazu. They have evicted 270 people, burnt down all the 54 houses and crops. Two men have been killed -- ÁNGEL CRISTALDO and LUÍS TORRES. There are many people injured and 130 people arrested, amongst them many women and children.
The peasant community of Tekojoja is a land settlement of 500 hectares were 56 peasants families live and is located 70 km from the city of Caaguazu. Tekojoja is affiliated with the Organización Agraria y Popular, MCNOC (National coordination platform of peasant organisatiosn), and Via Campesina Paraguay. They are also involved in the Frente por la Soberanía y la Vida (Front for Food Sovereignity and Life).
Caauguazu and San Pedro are the regions where the GM soy monocultures have been expanding in Paraguay in the last 5 years. There are 2 million hectares of GM soy monocultures in Paraguay and the government plans the expansion of 2 more million hectares. In Paraguay less than 2% of the population owns 70% of the land, causing the expulsion of the peasants from their historical territories. The GM soy monocultures aimed for export is a principal cause of this severe situation. The rate of land conflicts has multiplied in the last years; in 2004 alone, 162 land conflicts and 118 land occupation took place.
Tekojoja is one of the peasant settlements recovered during the land reform. However, many of these lands have gone back to the hands of private big land owner by illegal and corrupted maneuvers or by tricking the peasants. This is the case in the Tekojoja community, which has since its beginning been threatened by the expansion of the GM soy monocultures. Adelin Osperman is a Brasilian GM soy producer that wants to control these lands and has begun a juridical trial against the peasants, despite the fact that the settlement was legally recognized three years ago by the current government of Nicanor Duarte Frutos. Carlos González, a member of the Coordinación de la Organización Agraria y Popular, states: "The judge in charge of the juridical process has never taken into account that these land belonged to the state and were donated to the peasant organisations with the land reform program." In August 2004, the community was attacked in an eviction attempt, resulting in several people arrested and injured.
On Friday June 25, at 5.30 in the morning, the attornies Pedro Torrales and Nelly Varela appeared with 150 policemen with the intention of evicting the whole community. People were brutally harassed and beaten as police evicted and arrested the people, followed by the paramilitary groups destroying and burning the houses with Caterpillar tractors. In total, 130 people were arrested, amongst them 40 children, and taken to the local jail in Caaguazu. Galeano, a spokesperson of the community, informed that since the incident 29 men, 19 women y 40 children have been liberated. Several peasants are missing since Friday. In the eviction, the land owner Adelin Osperman (Brazilian soy producer) arrived, backed up by hired gunmen who entered the land with trucks and shot at the peasants, killing Angel Cristaldo (20 years old), and Leopoldo Torres (49 years old), and severely injuring 5 more people in front of the policemen present at the settlement. One is still in a critical state in the Hospital La Candelaria (Caaguazu); Anibal Gonzalez had to be operated on yesterday. The Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos, the National Comission of Human Rights of Paragauy, is covering the health care cost, as the health and social services in the country have been privatized.
At current date, Ademir Oppermann and several of his gunmen have been arrested because of the murders. In the arrest, a whole arsenal of weapons were found: 4 shotguns (2 of caliber 12 and 2 of caliber 20), one revolver caliber 38. All these were found in the trucks that entered the peasant community to destroy houses and crops. The actions of these paramilitary groups have been widely denounced in the last years. It is with the help of these groups that the majority of the evictions take place, ususally with the collaboration of the military and police. The last time such actions were reported was in January this year when Jorge Galeano, a peasant leader of the community, denounced publicly that Opperman had hired armed goups to terrorize the peasant communities.
It is now urgent to help the 270 people that have lost all their belongings; they are back on their land for the moment, but nothing is left. The landowner took away three trucks with the belongings of the peasants, and only one has been found and is in the hands of the police. It is worth remarking the urgent situation of the whole community, that is now facing the winter without clothes, food and shelter.
The peasant organisations have planned several demonstrations for the coming days. There will be demonstrations in Asuncion in front of the attorneys' offices, denouncing the behauvior of the two attorneys that ordered the evictions. One of them, Nelly Varela, verbally ordered the police to take the children out of the school and arrest them, stated Galeano. The peasant organisation will also try to meet the president of INDERT (Rural Development and Land Issue Institution) and demand the protection of their lands. "Ko yvyko oremba'e, ha roî roproba haguãicha upéva; roguerekopa la documento ome'eva'ekue oréve Indert ha upévare ndorosê mo'ai ko'águi," (This land belongs to us and we can show it, we have the documents from the government institution INDERT and we will not leave) stated Jorge Galeano in the indigenous language Guarani.
We ask international organizations to spread word of this situation, network for solidarity actions and send human right observers to Paraguay. Many land conflicts take place during the soy crop season (Dec.-March) when the peasants attempt to stop the pesticide fumigations in the surroundings of their communities, confronting police and military that guards the soy fields.
The peasant communities need help in the form of support for legal advocacy and health care. They need to cover the costs of lawyers for the juridical process defending their lands and to denounce the violation of their rights. The health care is privatized in Paraguay and the peasants do not have access to it. They are
intensively poisoned by the fumigation of pesticides, and the community members are suffering severe health problems and need to do tests and buy medicines. The Coordination of Peasant and Indigenous Women (CONAMURI) is maintaining the court case against two Brazilian soy producers acussed of killing an 11 year old boy, Silvino Talavera, by their careless fumigation of Round Ready herbicide.
Sources:
Ultima Hora, Paraguay, June 28
 http://www.ultimahora.com.py/template.asp?notic=200605
Diario ABC, Paraguay, June 28
http://www.abc.com.py/articulos.php?fec=2005-06-26&pid=187691&sec=7
Diario ABC, Paraguay, June 27
http://www.abc.com.py/articulos.php?fec=2005-06-27&pid=187921&sec=7
La Nacion, Paraguay, June 22
http://www.lanacion.com.py/noticias/2005/06/27/politica/107782.html
| | Update Paraguay | MerO - 29.06.2005 14:42
Beste mensen,
Aangezien wij hebben vernomen dat er 25 verdachten zijn opgepakt en zowaar de vice president zich er zorgen over schijnt te maken, denken wij dat het niet veel toegevoegde waarde heeft om naar de ambassade te gaan. Wij zullen wel een fax sturen naar de Paraguayaanse minister van binnenlandse zaken, deze zal later op de dag nog hier bij gezet worden.
groeten
het Paraguayaanse solidariteitscomite
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