Recent news on Yanomami Indians

New gold rush threatens Brazil's Yanomami Indians

By Phil Stewart

  
BRASILIA, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Thousands of gold prospectors have penetrated 
Brazil's Yanomami Indian reservation and may have armed some natives in a 
move that could trigger renewed bloodshed in the remote Amazon region, 
government officials and rights groups said on Wednesday. 

According to government surveillance data, up to 4,000 wildcat miners are 
believed to have poured into Yanomami territory over the past three months in 
a quest for gold. 

Officials fear that beyond damaging the environment and spreading Western 
disease to the isolated tribe, invading miners may again engage in armed 
conflict against the Yanomami, as happened in 1993 when 12 Indians were 
massacred. 

``This is a very dangerous situation. From the reports we are getting, we are 
afraid there could be new conflict,'' said Fernando Bittencourt, executive 
secretary of the Pro-Yanomami Commission in Brasilia. 

The president of the Brazilian government's National Indian Foundation 
(Funai), Glenio da Costa Alvarez, said he planned to launch ``Operation 
Yanomami'' this week, stepping up surveillance and moving ahead with plans to 
eject the miners -- known locally as garimpeiros -- from the Portugal-sized 
Yanomami reservation. 

``We have identified three major settlements,'' Alvarez said. ``Our goal is 
to get them out before they upset the balance there.'' 

YANOMAMI INDIANS DYING IN GUN BATTLES 

Five Yanomami have died this year as a result of gunfire, although the 
primitive Indian nation hunts and fights with bows and arrows. 

Alvarez said he received reports that miners had given guns to Yanomami 
Indians in a bid to turn tribes against each other, but rights groups said it 
was not clear whether the Indians died at the hands of fellow Yanomami or 
garimpeiros. 

Also worrying officials was last week's murder of a miner in Yanomami 
territory, near Brazil's border with Venezuela. Human rights groups fear 
Yanomami may have killed the miner, which could provoke a revenge killing. 

``The last major massacre in 1993 was caused by revenge. The garimpeiros then 
killed a whole village. We don't want this to happen again,'' Bittencourt 
said. 

The Yanomami, one of the world's only true Neolithic tribes, had lived in 
near-total isolation for about 2,000 years until the late 1970s, when 
Brazil's military government conducted aerial surveys showing deposits of 
valuable cassiterite ore, uranium and gold. 

A decade later, more 45,000 garimpeiros had entered Yanomami territory, 
spreading diseases and destroying the ecosystem -- a mix of savanna and 
jungle -- by contaminating rivers with mercury used to identify and purify 
gold. 

Lacking immunity to even common colds, the Yanomami were decimated. About 
20,000 lived in Brazilian territory 20 years ago. Now there are 10,000 
although the population recently began to grow again, officials say.