Post by hushasha40 on Apr 21, 2007 16:15:45 GMT 1
Brazil: Indigenous Demonstrators Get Results
by Mario Osava, Inter Press Service News Agency
RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 20 (IPS) - The indigenous protesters who camped out this week in the very heart of the Brazilian capital have victories to celebrate, like the installation by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of a national commission on indigenous policy.
Lula received a committee of indigenous leaders Thursday in the seat of government, in a meeting that was not scheduled until late Wednesday. The president said he hopes in his second term, which runs from this year to 2010, to put into effect the programmes in favour of indigenous people that he was unable to implement in his first term, which began in 2003.
The new national commission on indigenous policy, under the Justice Ministry, is made up of 20 representatives of indigenous groups and four representatives of other segments of civil society. This participation will increase the responsibility of indigenous people themselves in designing the policies that benefit them, said Lula.
"Indigenous April", which included demonstrations around Brazil, including roadblocks and cultural activities, is held every year, and ended Apr. 19, the National Indigenous Peoples Day.
The commission on indigenous policy was a longstanding demand of indigenous people, to enable them to take part in decisions that directly affect their interests. Lula had formally created it last year, but without appointing members, which meant it was not actually put into effect. The pressure from the indigenous "free land camp" set up this week in Brasilia finally achieved that end.
In addition, Justice Minister Tarso Genro signed a document Thursday that recognises seven indigenous territories, mainly in southern Brazil. There were 34 territories still awaiting formal demarcation, according to the indigenous movement--down from 139 indigenous reserves awaiting ratification in March 2005.
Another concern expressed by the demonstrators this week in Brasilia was the need to improve the provision of health care to indigenous communities, especially in the Amazon jungle region.
Five ethnic groups from the Valley of Javarí, a river that forms part of the border between Brazil and Peru, are facing dire problems. Most of the roughly 4,000 indigenous people in the area have symptoms of hepatitis B.
The local population wants health services to be provided again by the National Health Foundation (FUNASA), a Health Ministry agency, because their transfer to the municipal governments has turned out to be a disaster, Eliesio Marubo, with the Indigenous Council of the Valley of Javari (CIVAJA), told IPS.
The municipal governments "hire unqualified people, which goes against the regulations, and they lack adequate buildings and equipment, all of which conspires against the needs of indigenous people, who are dying" from the combined effects of malaria and hepatitis, he complained.
A report by various indigenous people's organisations and institutions that support them, including local representatives of FUNASA, warned several ministers and other members of Lula's leftwing government about the serious health crisis in the Valley of Javarí.
Out of a sample of 309 local indigenous people, 56 percent were found to be carrying the hepatitis B virus. The World Health Organisation considers a maximum of two percent to be acceptable.
The sample was less than 10 percent of the population of that area, Marubo pointed out, so a wider study is under way to discover the real magnitude of the situation. But the picture, in any event, is "extremely serious, as a few years ago we only had three cases of malaria a month, and now we have 270," he said.
Malaria and hepatitis "are decimating the population of Javarí," said Jecinaldo Barbosa Cabral, president of the Coordination of Indigenous Organisations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), who was one of the leaders of the demonstration in Brasilia.
Both diseases attack the liver, and their combined damage can cause death. "It is necessary to put pressure on FUNASA to act quickly," Hilton Nascimento, an environmentalist and local educator with the Indigenist Work Centre (CTI), a non-governmental organisation based in Brasilia, told IPS by telephone from Tabatinga, on the border with Colombia and Peru.
There have been several vaccination campaigns against hepatitis B in the valley, but they have generally not been carried out properly and the entire population has not been immunised, he complained. However, the catastrophic statistics should be seen in perspective, as sometimes being a carrier means the person has been in contact with the virus, but is not necessarily sick, he added.
It is difficult for the municipalities and even for FUNASA to organise satisfactory healthcare for local indigenous people, because of political influences, lack of trained staff and service interruptions, as few qualified health workers are willing to work in the tough local conditions, and do not stay long, Nascimento said.
In his opinion, the international organisation Doctors Without Borders, which provides emergency medical aid in the most hostile conditions, did a "good job" on malaria control some years ago in the Valley of Javarí.
In his "further training" class of 29 teachers, for example, at least 10 have malaria, Nascimento said.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37428
by Mario Osava, Inter Press Service News Agency
RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 20 (IPS) - The indigenous protesters who camped out this week in the very heart of the Brazilian capital have victories to celebrate, like the installation by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of a national commission on indigenous policy.
Lula received a committee of indigenous leaders Thursday in the seat of government, in a meeting that was not scheduled until late Wednesday. The president said he hopes in his second term, which runs from this year to 2010, to put into effect the programmes in favour of indigenous people that he was unable to implement in his first term, which began in 2003.
The new national commission on indigenous policy, under the Justice Ministry, is made up of 20 representatives of indigenous groups and four representatives of other segments of civil society. This participation will increase the responsibility of indigenous people themselves in designing the policies that benefit them, said Lula.
"Indigenous April", which included demonstrations around Brazil, including roadblocks and cultural activities, is held every year, and ended Apr. 19, the National Indigenous Peoples Day.
The commission on indigenous policy was a longstanding demand of indigenous people, to enable them to take part in decisions that directly affect their interests. Lula had formally created it last year, but without appointing members, which meant it was not actually put into effect. The pressure from the indigenous "free land camp" set up this week in Brasilia finally achieved that end.
In addition, Justice Minister Tarso Genro signed a document Thursday that recognises seven indigenous territories, mainly in southern Brazil. There were 34 territories still awaiting formal demarcation, according to the indigenous movement--down from 139 indigenous reserves awaiting ratification in March 2005.
Another concern expressed by the demonstrators this week in Brasilia was the need to improve the provision of health care to indigenous communities, especially in the Amazon jungle region.
Five ethnic groups from the Valley of Javarí, a river that forms part of the border between Brazil and Peru, are facing dire problems. Most of the roughly 4,000 indigenous people in the area have symptoms of hepatitis B.
The local population wants health services to be provided again by the National Health Foundation (FUNASA), a Health Ministry agency, because their transfer to the municipal governments has turned out to be a disaster, Eliesio Marubo, with the Indigenous Council of the Valley of Javari (CIVAJA), told IPS.
The municipal governments "hire unqualified people, which goes against the regulations, and they lack adequate buildings and equipment, all of which conspires against the needs of indigenous people, who are dying" from the combined effects of malaria and hepatitis, he complained.
A report by various indigenous people's organisations and institutions that support them, including local representatives of FUNASA, warned several ministers and other members of Lula's leftwing government about the serious health crisis in the Valley of Javarí.
Out of a sample of 309 local indigenous people, 56 percent were found to be carrying the hepatitis B virus. The World Health Organisation considers a maximum of two percent to be acceptable.
The sample was less than 10 percent of the population of that area, Marubo pointed out, so a wider study is under way to discover the real magnitude of the situation. But the picture, in any event, is "extremely serious, as a few years ago we only had three cases of malaria a month, and now we have 270," he said.
Malaria and hepatitis "are decimating the population of Javarí," said Jecinaldo Barbosa Cabral, president of the Coordination of Indigenous Organisations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), who was one of the leaders of the demonstration in Brasilia.
Both diseases attack the liver, and their combined damage can cause death. "It is necessary to put pressure on FUNASA to act quickly," Hilton Nascimento, an environmentalist and local educator with the Indigenist Work Centre (CTI), a non-governmental organisation based in Brasilia, told IPS by telephone from Tabatinga, on the border with Colombia and Peru.
There have been several vaccination campaigns against hepatitis B in the valley, but they have generally not been carried out properly and the entire population has not been immunised, he complained. However, the catastrophic statistics should be seen in perspective, as sometimes being a carrier means the person has been in contact with the virus, but is not necessarily sick, he added.
It is difficult for the municipalities and even for FUNASA to organise satisfactory healthcare for local indigenous people, because of political influences, lack of trained staff and service interruptions, as few qualified health workers are willing to work in the tough local conditions, and do not stay long, Nascimento said.
In his opinion, the international organisation Doctors Without Borders, which provides emergency medical aid in the most hostile conditions, did a "good job" on malaria control some years ago in the Valley of Javarí.
In his "further training" class of 29 teachers, for example, at least 10 have malaria, Nascimento said.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37428