Brazil: Jair Bolsonaro denounced for genocide of indigenous peoples | Presentation before the International Court in The Hague

A group of Brazilian indigenous avocados presented this Monday, before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, nail complaint for “genocide of indigenous peoples” against Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president with the greatest rights violation since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985.

The president, who if the complaint is accepted could end up in international UN tribunals, has been accused of “invasions and attacks by agricultural mafias on indigenous lands, deforestation, burning of meadows and destruction of the environment. “

Also for “Illegal mining and support for illegal mining mafias on indigenous lands and the spread of the covid-19 pandemic on indigenous lands”.

Although this is the third complaint against Bolsonaro before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, it is the first of an indigenous paternity.

The presentation, which corresponds International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples established by the UN, was carried out by jurists gathered at Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), which represents nearly a million people from indigenous peoples.

“The worst president for indigenous peoples”

Bolsonaro has made it clear that indigenous peoples are not a priority for his government: not only has he ensured that during his tenure there will be no demarcation of ancestral lands for indigenous peoples, but he also encouraged the planting of soybeans among the tribes – to make them agro-industrial plants planting on land recognized by the state – and is trying to change a law to allow artisanal and industrial mining in indigenous reserves.

“After re-democratization, without a doubt, he is the worst president for indigenous peoples“Said Dinaman Tuxá, director of the APIB and one of the signatories of the complaint, which is based on the concept of genocide used by the ICC in its most decisive judgments, referring to the war of disintegration of the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

The order before The Hague also includes the Bolsonaro’s role in the coronavirus pandemic, which caused the deaths of 1,100 indigenous people, mainly by reducing the actions of public organizations for the protection of indigenous communities.

“We believe that there are events going on in Brazil which constitute crimes against humanity, genocide and ecocide. Faced with the inability of the Brazilian justice system to investigate and judge these behaviors, we denounce them to the international community., through the International Criminal Court, ”said Eloy Terena, Legal Coordinator of Apib.

The position of indigenous peoples

According to an extract from the decree, “the dismantling of public structures for social and environmental protection, as well as those intended to protect indigenous peoples, has led to the escalation of invasions of indigenous lands, deforestation and fires in Brazilian biomes. , as well as in the increase of illegal mining in the territories ”.

“The APIB will continue to defend the right of indigenous peoples to exist in their diversity. We are indigenous peoples and we will not give in to extermination “Terena pointed out.

For her part, Sonia Guajara, leader of the APIB, underlined that “the solutions for this sick world come from the indigenous peoples, and we will never remain silent in the face of the violence that we are suffering”.

“We sent this declaration to the International Criminal Court because we cannot stop denouncing Bolsonaro’s anti-indigenous policy. He must pay for all the violence and destruction he is carrying out,” he concluded. .

March against Bolsonaro

Indigenous extermination was highlighted in Brazil on July 24 during a national demonstration calling for the resignation of Bolsonaro in São Paulo.

During the march, a group of protesters set fire to a statue of São Paulo’s bandirante conqueror, Borba Gato, who was among the colonizers who took land and enslaved indigenous peoples in the 17th century.

For having burned tires around the statue, the union leader of food distributors for digital applications, Paulo Galo, is found arrested and in preventive detention.