Doutor em sociologia (USP). Terapeuta Comunitário. Escritor. Membro do MISC-PB Movimento Integrado de Saúde Comunitária da Paraíba. Autor de “Max Weber: ciência e valores” (São Paulo: Cortez Editora, 2001. Publicado em espanhol pela Editora Homo Sapiens. Buenos Aires, 2005), Mosaico (João Pessoa: Editora da UFPB, 2003), Resurrección, (2009). Vários dos meus livros estão disponíveis on line gratuitamente: https://consciencia.net/mis-libros-on-line-meus-livros/
Doutor em sociologia (USP). Terapeuta Comunitário. Escritor. Membro do MISC-PB Movimento Integrado de Saúde Comunitária da Paraíba. Autor de “Max Weber: ciência e valores” (São Paulo: Cortez Editora, 2001. Publicado em espanhol pela Editora Homo Sapiens. Buenos Aires, 2005), Mosaico (João Pessoa: Editora da UFPB, 2003), Resurrección, (2009). Vários dos meus livros estão disponíveis on line gratuitamente: https://consciencia.net/mis-libros-on-line-meus-livros/
Foto: Jornal do Senado/Arquivo Público de Distrito Federal
Brazil must reconsider plans to commemorate the anniversary of a military coup which led to gross human rights violations for two decades, says a UN expert.
“Attempts to revise history and justify or condone gross human rights violations of the past must be clearly rejected by all authorities and society as a whole,” said the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence, Fabián Salvioli.
The appeal by the UN expert follows an order by Brazil’s President Bolsonaro telling the Ministry of Defense to mark the 55th anniversary this weekend of the coup that led to a dictatorship from 1964 to 1985.
As formally recognised by the Brazilian State, this period was marked by a regime of restrictions on fundamental rights and violent systematic repression.
According to the National Truth Commission, more than 8,000 indigenous people and at least 434 suspected political dissidents were killed or forcibly disappeared. It is also estimated that tens of thousands of others were arbitrarily arrested and/or tortured. However, an amnesty law enacted by the military dictatorship has prevented accountability for the abuses.
“Commemorating the anniversary of a regime that brought such suffering to the Brazilian population is both immoral and inadmissible in a society based on the rule of law. The authorities are under an obligation to ensure that such horrendous crimes are never forgotten, misrepresented, or left unpunished,” said the expert.
“Any actions that could justify or condone gross human rights violations during the dictatorship would further reinforce the impunity that the perpetrators have enjoyed in Brazil, hinder efforts to prevent any recurrence of such violations and weaken the trust of society in public institutions and the rule of law.”
The Special Rapporteur stressed the right of Brazilians to know the truth about past heinous crimes and about the circumstances that led to them, as well as the State’s duty to preserve evidence of such violence. “This may include preserving the collective memory of these events and guarding against the development of revisionist and negationist arguments,” he said.
An accurate account of the violations suffered by victims constitutes part of their right to reparation and satisfaction. “I am deeply concerned that the planned celebrations could lead to a process of revictimisation for those who suffered.”
Mr. Fabián Salvioli (Argentina) is the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition. He took up his functions on 1 May 2018. Mr. Salvioli is a human rights lawyer and professor of International Law and Human Rights at the School of Law of the University of La Plata, where he is also Director of the Human Rights Master Program and Director of the Institute of Human Rights. He was member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee between 2009 and 2016, and its President between 2015 and 2016. In this capacity, he authored the “Guidelines on reparations” adopted by the Committee in October 2016.
Less than 72 hours after President Joko Widodo’s orders to implement the agrarian reform through land redistribution as a step to address economic disparity and inequality, peasant families of Mekar Jaya Village in Langkat District of North Sumatera Province in Indonesia were in for a rude shock.
Langkat Nusantara Kepong Ltd (LNK), a Malaysian firm with interests in palm oil plantations, did exactly the opposite by evicting these families from their own lands and razing their houses to the ground. 554 hectares of land have been forcefully grabbed from peasants by this Corporation, in a series of attempts made since the 18th of November 2016.
In the latest of those actions, carried out on Monday the 27th of March, seventy houses have been razed down to the ground.
The affected peasant families, who are members of the Indonesian Peasants’ Union (SPI), have so far been putting up a brave fight. But with nowhere to stay and their houses gone, the distress and despair is strikingly evident.
General Secretary of the Central Board (DPP) of SPI, Agus Ruli Ardiansyah said that over a thousand personnel from the police and fire department, descended with heavy machineries to carry out the eviction on Monday.
Visibly agitated, he spoke at a press conference in Jakarta on the morning of the 28th,
“We denounce LNK. It’s actions certainly violate the orders of President Jokowi to immediately implement agrarian reform and land redistribution to address the economic disparity, because Mekar Jaya has previously been listed as a hometown of agrarian reform. 70 houses were destroyed. 360 families have nowhere to stay any longer,”
“What PT-LNK did will increase rural poverty. With its latest actions, the firm has curtailed peasants’ access to livelihood. It is a direct violation of the instructions of President Jokowi to accelerate the agrarian reform. He had re-emphasized it at Mandailing Natal, on March 25, 2017, ” Agus Ruli added.
Zubaidah, Chairperson of SPI North Sumatra Region gives a brief history of the region and recalls 1952, when people of Paya Redas and Paya Kasih earmarked nearly 1,000 hectares of land for paddy cultivation.
“It resulted in the creation of a settlement called Paya Redas, with TK Abdul Hamit as their village head from 1954 till 1964. In the 1970’s trouble started when the company PTP II/PTPN II forcefully evicted peasants from nearly 500 hectares of land. Since then, up till now families in the region have been facing these threats periodically.”, says Zubaidah.
LNK, the firm that carried out Monday’s eviction attack, is a joint venture of PTPN II and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Plantation Holdings Ltd. The Malaysian partner holds 60% of the stake in LNK. Its efforts to evict peasants from the lands which were occupied and managed over the years and over several generations, have been gathering steam lately.
“PT LNK claimed that these peasants who have been living on this land are tenants who come from outside the area. On the contrary, we are the true owners of this land and these houses. We are the descendants and direct heirs of those who have lived here for generations, “said Zubaidah.
At a meeting of all-affected-parties held on the 30th of March, Zubaidah made a presentation explaining the context and the current situation to the House of Representatives of North Sumatra (DPRD). Chairman of DPRD North Sumatra, F.L. Fernando Simanjuntak has ordered LNK and PTPN II to treat the community respectfully and rightfully.
“We are from SPI of North Sumatra, with representatives of SPI from Mekar Jaya village here to meet the Commission A DPRD North Sumatra.”
“Commission A, represented by Fernando Simanjuntak and Sarma Hutajulu as Chairman and Secretary acknowledged that the municipal police could not evict land and peasants’ houses. This means that LNK has arbitrarily carried out this action “, Zubaidah said in a press statement.
Emergency in Mekar Jaya!
Chairman of the Executive Branch (BPC) of SPI, Langkat Suriono asserted that the land and houses that have been bulldozed are still legally valid.
“Based on the conflict settlement process and the RDP report to the Presidential Staff Office (KSP), the Ministry of Agricultural, and others, there has been no decision on the status of land and houses owned by peasants. This means that no one can carry out any activities on the land, including eviction and destruction of the homes ” said Suriono.
Suriono also urged LNK to respect the laws and instructions of the President Jokowi about the implementation of agrarian reform rather than straddling the law and obstructing the agrarian reform by destroying the lives and livelihoods of small peasants.
“National Land Agency (BPN) or Agricultural Ministry itself has not decide on the conflict, why LNK boldly straddles the law in this country? Are they not satisfied with eliminating our source of livelihood, that they are now bulldozing our homes and evicting us from our land? “he asked.
La Vía Campesina strongly condemns the brutal and intentional murder of our comrade Suleiman Hammad, an 85-year-old Palestinian farmer who on February 8th, 2017 was run over by an Israeli settler, while walking to work on his land near Al-Khader Village, south of Bethlehem.
We send our condolences and solidarity to his family and our sister organization, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) of Palestine.
We urge all people, social movements, and governments to pressure international institutions to help stop the systematic violation of the Right to Life of Palestinian farmers and bring an end to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine.
What you can do?
Write a statement against the constant violation of the Right to Life of Palestinian farmers.
Break the international community’s silence and act immediately to protect the Palestinian farmers and put pressure to end the Israeli Occupation.
Organize protests in front of the Israeli Embassies to stop the Israeli violation against our farmers’ rights.
