US Missionary murdered in Brazil
 

http://www.indystar.com/articles/5/221993-9755-010.html
http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/mdf858028.jpg

http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArti...toryID=7610636

American Nun Shot Dead in Brazil's Amazon
By Leonardo Pedro

BELEM, Brazil (Reuters) - A 74-year-old American nun was shot to death early on Saturday in Brazil's Amazon rain forest, where she worked for decades to defend human rights and the environment despite constant death threats.

Two gunmen shot U.S. missionary Dorothy Stang in an isolated jungle settlement of landless peasants 30 miles from the town of Anapu in the state of Para, police and fellow religious workers said.

"It was three shots at point-blank range," said Sister Betsy Flynn of Stang's order, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. "She received so many threats; I just never thought it would happen."

"Two hired gunmen have now been identified and there are other people involved. There are witnesses that will be protected," Human Rights Minister Nilmario Miranda said in an interview on national television. He used the word "pistoleiro," used in Brazil to describe a contract killer.

Brazil's government compared the killing of the award-winning activist to that of legendary Amazon campaigner Chico Mendes, who was gunned down in 1988 and became a martyr in the fight to save the rain forest and protect its people.

President Luiz Inacio Lula sent ministers and police teams to the area to carry out a manhunt and investigation.

His government expressed outrage that Stang should be slain just two weeks after it launched a national human rights program from the Belem state capital.

"This type of cruel, vile crime reveals complete lack of respect for the law and democracy," Brazilian Justice Minister Tomaz Bastos said in a statement. "It will not go without punishment."

Only this month, Stang warned Miranda she and landless workers faced continual death threats.

Stang was on a list of human rights workers who face possible assassination. The list was compiled by the Brazilian Order of Lawyers (OAB), a nationwide lawyers group.

The OAB said she accepted the threats as part of her work persuading hired gunmen not to attack peasant camps and reporting the human rights abuses of land speculators, illegal loggers and large ranchers, the OAB said.

Stang, who had lived in Brazil for more than three decades, recently won an OAB human rights award for her work in the area of the Trans-Amazonian highway. The state of Para named her woman of the year.

"This death is just more encouragement to continue her work to confront the people who are destroying the forest," said Meire Cohen of the OAB. "She used to walk kilometers and kilometers in the middle of the forest teaching women how to take better care of their children and use the forest without destroying it."

The U.S. Embassy in Brazil said it was "concerned" by Stang's death. She was a native of Ohio.

"We trust there will be a full investigation by the police," said a spokesman.

In 2002, Stang told U.S. environmental magazine Outside about the daily risks of her work.

"The logging companies work with a threat logic. ... They elaborate a list of leaders, and then a second movement appears to eliminate those people," Stang told the magazine. "If I get a stray bullet ... we know exactly who did it."

(Additional reporting by Andrew Hay in Brasilia)

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...ara_map203.gif

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4272457.stm

Brazil army to curb Amazon unrest
By Steve Kingstone
BBC News, Sao Paulo

The Brazilian government is sending troops to maintain order in the Amazon state of Para following a wave of land-related violence.

US missionary Dorothy Stang, 74, was shot dead by hired gunmen near the town of Anapu on Saturday.

On Tuesday, a leading figure in the rural trade union movement was killed in another part of the state.

Following an emergency cabinet meeting, 2,000 soldiers are being sent to three towns in the region, including Anapu.

The decision to call in the army was taken by Jose Alencar, Brazil's vice-president and defence minister.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has now cut short a trip to neighbouring Surinam to return to Brasilia.

Land disputes

Over the past four days, his government has faced stinging criticism for apparently ignoring warnings about the prospect of violence.

Dorothy Stang had herself raised concerns with Brazil's human rights minister only last week.

Others, including prominent land reformers, are angry that it took the death of a foreigner to force the government into action.

They point out that Para has seen more than 500 land-related killings over the past two decades.

In all but a handful of cases, the crimes went unpunished.

The government's priority now is to avoid any further settling of scores in a region which has been marked by conflict between loggers and wealthy landowners on one side and peasant farmers and environmentalists on the other.

As well as maintaining order, the soldiers will offer support to the police as they try to trace the two hired gunmen accused of Dorothy Stang's murder.

http://www.keralanext.com/news/indexread.asp?id=120878

[America News]: ANAPU, Brazil - Brazil’s president ordered the creation of a huge Amazon environmental protection area in a lawless region coveted by soy farmers and ranchers less than a week after an American nun was gunned down trying to protect the jungle from deforestation.

Decrees signed on Thursday by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will form a reserve of 3.3 million hectares (8.2 million acres) and a national park spanning 450,000 hectares (1.1 million acres) in the state of Para, where 73-year-old Dorothy Stang was shot to death in a dispute with a powerful rancher.

“We can’t give in to people committing acts of violence,” said Environment Minister Marina Silva, who announced the decrees in the capital, Brasilia. “The government is putting the brakes on in front of the predators.”

Stang, a naturalized Brazilian originally from Dayton, Ohio, was attacked Saturday in a settlement 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Anapu, which is located in Para. A witness said she read from a Bible after being confronted by two gunmen and was then shot six times at close range.

The decrees were announced after more than 60 groups signed a letter to the president demanding strong moves to curb “violence and impunity associated with the illegal occupation of lands and deforestation” in the Amazon - and especially in vast Para state.

missionaries deserve to die anyway