Why April 17? The massacre of Eldorado de Carajás Because they had been evicted from their land more than two years earlier and because all their attempts to get the right to settle down on an unproductive land had failed, around 1,500 landless peasants and their families, members of MST, the Brazil's Landless Peasants Movement, decided to march to the state capital of Pará, to present their demands. The march stopped on the highway at Eldorado de Carajás, as pregnant women and children were tired and needed to rest. At about 4pm on 17 April 1996, 68 military police from the Paraupebas Platoon arrived and at 4.30pm 87 police arrived from the other direction of Marabá. The peasants were then caught between two platoons of police. After firing tear-gas, the police raised their machine guns to body level and began firing into the crowd. The crowd dispersed as people began to realise they were being shot at with live ammunition. The first to fall and die was Amâncio Dos Santos Silva, known as "Surdo-Mudo" ("deaf-mute"). Unable to hear the shots, he took longer than the others to understand what was happening. In total, 19 peasants were killed, 69 were severely injured. Among the victims, at least 10 of the peasants were extrajudicially executed after they had been overpowered. Others, although killed from a distance, were shot in the head or thorax. The public prosecutors, in their report recommending that charges be brought against the police in military courts, draw clear conclusions from the forensic evidence and testimony: "The accused, without any doubt, set out with the deliberate intention of killing and injuring the MST members." Pieces of evidence were systematically destroyed : weapon registration forms disappeared, the troops had removed their identification tags, a journalist was arrested before the massacre and her film was confiscated... There is no doubt that abuses against the landless peasants were premeditated, and that there was no intention of negotiating the evacuation of the peasants. State authorities, the police, the army and powerful local landowners were involved in the planning and the execution of the massacre. Three weeks before the killing, a group of landowners had publicly handed over to the Secretary of Public Security a list of MST leaders whom they wanted "removed" from the region. It was also proven that some of the buses used by the troops had been hired by the mining company that had evicted the farmers from their land two years earlier. Today, 13 years after one of the most brutal killings by the Brazilian police in history, none of the culprits has been condemned. The International Day of Peasant's struggle On the 17 th of April 1996, while those tragic events were taking place, la Via Campesina was holding its Second International Conference in Tlaxcala, Mexico. Farmers leaders, men and women from around the world, declared that date the International Day of Peasant's Struggle in homage of the struggle for land and peasant's rights in Eldorado de 1
Carajás and all around the world. Every year, hundreds of peasants and small farmers are arrested, oppressed, intimidated and even killed for their struggle for life. Since then, every year, farmers organisations and allies, local groups, NGOs and activists all around the world celebrate the 17 th of April by organising events and actions in defense of peasant's agriculture and the rights of peasants. La Via Campesina's struggle for the rights of peasants Almost half of the people in the world are peasants and small farmers and the food they produce is the backbone of people's life. Agriculture is not just an economic activity, but it also means life, culture and dignity for all of us. Nonetheless, peasants all over the world have to struggle to defend their right to feed themselves and their communities. Every year, thousands of peasant leaders are being arrested in their effort to maintain land, water and natural resources the effort to preserve life. Incidents of massacres, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detention, and political persecution and harassment are common. Poor rural families, represent 75 % of the people suffering from structural hunger. Illiteracy rates increase in rural areas, health care and public services are vanishing and poverty is raging. Women and children are the most affected and discrimination towards women has put double burden on their shoulders. The violations of the rights of peasants have risen dramatically with the liberalisation of agriculture that forced farmers to produce for export and to engage in industrial modes of production. International institutions such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) compel peasants and small farmers to follow that path. Over the past decades, peasants have disappeared massively all over the world, and a handful of large transnational corporations (TNCs) have taken control over food production and trade (from seeds producers to supermarket chains). Governments and international institutions have developed policies to support agribusiness and to dismantle peasant's agriculture. Food has been left in the hands of speculators, leading to the current food crisis. Towards a legal framework There are already some mechanisms and laws intended to protect human rights, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). However, they have limitations especially to address the distinctive rights of peasants. Also, the Charter of the Peasant, produced by the UN in 1978, has not been able to protect the peasants from international liberalization policies. The other international conventions, which also deal with peasants' rights, have not been sufficient either. These conventions include: International Labour Organization Convention 169, Clause 8-J Convention on Biodiversity, Point 14.60 Agenda 21, and Cartagena Protocol. 2
This is why La Via Campesina has been campaigning since 2000 to create an instrument to respect, protect, fulfill, and uphold the rights of peasants within the United Nations the International Convention on the Rights of Peasants. We also promote the development of legally binding mechanisms at local, provincial, national and regional levels to guarantee the protection of the rights of peasants. The long struggle for the adoption of the International Convention goes hand in hand with the struggle on the land, in our fields, in the reality of our daily life. As a first step towards the adoption of a Convention on the Right of Peasants by the Human Right Council, we demand the adoption of a Declaration by the Advisory Committee of the HR Council by the end of this year. This initiative is also supported by Ziegler, member of the Advisory Committee. As described by Via Campesina in its own Declaration on the rights of Peasants, the rights of peasants mainly consists of (1) right to life and to an adequate standard of living; (2) right to land and territory; (3) right to seeds and traditional agricultural knowledge and practice; (4) right to means of agricultural production; (5) right to information and agriculture technology; (6) freedom to determine price and market for agricultural production; (7) right to the protection of agriculture values; (8) right to biological diversity; (9) right to preserve the environment; (10) freedoms of association, opinion and expression; and (11) right to have access to justice. Free trade agreements destroy peasant's rights! The current crises (of finance, climate, energy, food and biodiversity) have highlighted the responsibility, fragility and absurdity of the liberal economic system. Logic would demand that governments abandon the policies which are causing such crises, and that safeguards be put in place. However we see the opposite: renewed attempts to conclude the Doha Negotiation Round at the WTO, the multiplication across the world of bilateral free trade agreements, launching of a new green revolution based on biotechnologies in Africa, and so on. The European Union (EU) is even taking up the offensive toward the African countries, aiming for endorsements of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) by June 2009 The EPAs and neoliberal policies are a real danger for Africa. An Impact study of EPAs on the economy of Mali shows that the signing of the EPA will have dramatic consequences for the small milk producers. Faced with the opening of the markets, many farmers will be forced to give up production. The EPAs guarantee multinational companies profits but totally fail to attend to the needs of the population. 3
What can you do? Organise an activity for the 17 th of April Direct actions, mobilisations, farmer's markets, conferences, cultural activities, book presentations, video screenings, music festival, press conference, special event at your university, in your community... Last year, thousands of groups, communities and organisations in more than 25 countries around the world organised more than 50 actions to defend their right to food and their right to feed their communities. Defend the rights of peasants in your own country Ask you government to support the rights of peasants in the United Nation and to adopt mesures at national level to protect them. You can contact the national Human Right Commissions, ombudsman, mediators... Those institutions usually have national, but also regional and sometimes local representations. You can organise an audience or a debate with them at all levels. You can also give more visibility to a current case of peasant's rights abuse in your country or your region to support the mobilisation. Join the 17 th of April mailing list to keep posted! Send a blank message to http://viacampesina.net/mailman/listinfo/via.17april_viacampesina.net. Support the Declaration of the Rights of Peasants on line! And invite your friends, organisations and allies to do so. Resources: 1 / The Declaration of the Rights of Peasants by Via Campesina www.viacampesina.org 2 / Lists of activities and declarations for the 17 th of April since 2001 http://www.viacampesina.org/main_en/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=26&itemid= 33 3 / Amnesty International Report on the Massacre of Eldorado de Carajás Brazil: Rural violence, political brutality and impunity http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/amr19/001/1998 4 / Video of La Via Campesina at the Human Rights Council 9 March 2009 http://www.un.org/webcast/unhrc/archive.asp?go=090309 Credits : Photograph Nick Paget Design Ikez 4
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