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Todd Howland Available for Media Interviews: ToddHowland@MaximsNews.com MaximsNews Columnist Todd Howland
UNITED NATIONS - 12 February 2006 / www.MaximsNews.com/ While the two gunmen in Sister Dorothy's assassination, farm hands of local cattle ranchers Rayfran das Neves Sales and Clodoaldo Carlos Batista, have been brought to justice and convicted of murder, those who planned and financed the murder have yet to be tried. The gunmen confessed in their trial to being promised R$50,000 (approximately US$22,000) by two wealthy ranchers, Vitalmiro Moura and Regivaldo Galvão, to carry out the murder. The middleman in the plot, Amair Feijoli, who delivered money and the gun to the gunmen, and the two wealthy ranchers named during the trial of the gunmen remain uncharged. Large ranchers often appropriate public lands and fake the titles to them through the process known as grilagem. They then hire gunmen and private militias to protect those lands and perpetuate their control. Local officials have been willing to turn a blind eye to these injustices and the federal officials have not been engaged in combating these practices at nearly the level needed to end the impunity traditionally enjoyed by these ranchers. The lives of landless rights activist are still threatened. Brazil's Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) recorded 18 assassinations of rural workers and human rights defenders in Para in 2005, compared with 15 in 2004. According to CPT, Pará is the Brazilian state with the highest murder rate related to land disputes. Sister
Dorothy fought for a human rights-based land reform that encouraged sustainable uses of the land and other natural resources; and a land reform that is mandated by the Brazilian Constitution. The implementation of which would strengthen the respect for human rights. Brazil still has one of the most inequitable land distributions in the world even though its Constitution mandates land expropriation and redistribution when land is not "serving a social function." INCRA, the Brazilian government agency tasked with implementing the Constitutional mandated land reform, receives only federal funds and is severely under-funded and lacks both capacity and political support to implement the immense land reform program that is needed. To this date President Lula has not asked any bilateral or multilateral entity for support for the Constitutional land reform scheme that was supported by Sister Dorothy and the social movements of Brazil. Without support from the international community it is highly unlikely that President Lula will be able to follow through with his campaign pledge to settle 430,000 landless families or his promise to honor Sister Dorothy. She is a martyr and a great hope to the landless people of Brazilian. It is up to the Brazilian government not only to do what is right but to follow the Brazilian Constitution. It is past due for President Lula to revise his requests for assistance from Norway, to the EU, to the UN to the World Bank in order to truly honor Sister Dorothy by implementing the land reform he knows is needed and supported by the social movements, like Sister Dorothy's Pastoral Land Commission. Other MaximsNews Columns by Todd Howland Sister Dorothy Stang, American Nun Murdered in Brazil One Year Ago -- Still No Justice Senator Coleman's UN Witch-Hunt U.N. Reform and the Crisis in Haiti
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