Village where Yanomami girl was allegedly raped is found burned

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The Aracaçá community, on the Yanomami indigenous land in Roraima, was found burned and empty after suspicions that a 12-year-old girl had been raped and killed and a 3-year-old child had fallen into a river and disappeared, according to an indigenous council that was on site.

Investigations are still ongoing, but indigenous leaders consulted by the Yanomami and Ye’kwana District Council for Indigenous Health (Condisi-YY) stated that these peoples have a tradition of burning and evacuating the place where they live if a relative dies.

Last Monday (25), Júnior Hekurari Yanomami, president of the group, published a video on social media saying that he received reports of violence, allegedly carried out by illegal miners who invaded the territory in the Waikás region.

He then alerted the authorities and, on Wednesday (27), accompanied a delegation to the scene with teams from the Federal Police, the Federal Public Ministry, Funai (National Indian Foundation) and Sesai (Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health) — the mission that would depart on Tuesday (26) was interrupted due to weather issues.

When they arrived, the community was on fire and there were no indigenous people. They only appeared 40 minutes later, to rescue materials from miners, according to a note released by the council this Friday (29). A video made by Júnior shows remnants of the fire and burned houses.

“After insisting, some indigenous people reported that they could not speak, as they would have received 0.5 grams of gold to keep silence. They also reported that other crimes had already happened in the region and that a newborn was recently taken to the capital of Boa Vista. by a prospector who claimed to be the child’s father,” the statement reads.

The delegation returned on Thursday morning (28) to look for evidence or information that would help in the investigation, but the indigenous people had left the place and there were only signs of the fire.

“It can be seen from the videos that these indigenous people were coerced and instructed not to report any occurrence that had occurred in the region, making it difficult for the Federal Police and Federal Public Ministry to investigate, which ended up reporting that there was no evidence of rape or disappearance of a child” , to be continued.

The agencies that went to the territory released similar notes to the press between Thursday and Friday, stating only that they found no evidence of crimes in the region and stating that investigations would continue.

“After extensive investigations and information gathering with indigenous people in the community, no evidence was found of the practice of crimes of homicide and rape or death by drowning, as narrated in the above-mentioned complaint. The teams, therefore, are still in diligence in search of further clarifications”, wrote the PF and Funai.

The MPF said that “the investigations demonstrated the need to deepen the investigation, in order to better clarify the facts. “.

The indigenous leaders who gathered on Friday to examine the images of the burned village, at the request of Condisi-YY, also analyzed the place where the Yanomami girl’s body was allegedly cremated, according to traditions. “One death was found to have occurred,” the group said.

Also this Friday, ministers Cármen Lúcia and Luiz Fux cited the case during a session of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) that overturned changes made by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the functioning of environmental councils.

He classified the case as “very serious” and she demanded investigations: “Indigenous women are massacred without society and the state taking efficient measures to reach the era of human rights for all, not as a privilege of part of society” , declared the minister.

On April 12, the Hutukara Associação Yanomami published the report “Yanomami Under Attack: Illegal Mining in the Yanomami Indigenous Land and Proposals to Combat It”. The document says that illegal mining advanced 46% between 2020 and 2021. If compared to the period from 2016 to 2020, the increase was 3,350%.

Also according to the report, the illegal extraction of gold and cassiterite in the indigenous land caused an explosion in cases of malaria and other infectious diseases and an increase in mercury contamination in rivers.

The document also points out that miners would be sexually abusing women and girls after getting people in the communities drunk, including using food exchange.

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