Hundreds killed in Brazil’s Amazon over land, resources in past decade: HRW report
BRASILIA: A Human Rights Watch report on Tuesday (Sep 17) found that more than 300 people have been ..
BRASILIA: A Human Rights Watch report on Tuesday (Sep 17) found that more than 300 people have been killed over the past decade in conflicts over the use of land and resources in the Amazon, many by organised criminal networks profiting from illegal deforestation.
Of those cases, only 14 were tried in court, the non-profit said in the report based on 170 interviews.
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"This really shows the level of impunity," Cesar Munoz, a senior investigator at Human Rights Watch told Reuters on the sidelines of an event in Sao Paulo to discuss the report. "There is really a failure of investigation and accountability."
The president's office in Brazil did not respond to a request for comment.
Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, responding to the report, told Reuters the government has combated criminality, including in the environmental sphere. He pointed to the mobilising of troops to combat illegal fires and other environmental crimes in recent weeks.
Brazilian firefighters and soldiers are pictured on a burning tract of the Amazon forest as it is cleared by farmers, in Rio Pardo, Rondonia, Brazil. (REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes)
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About 60 per cent of the Amazon rainforest, considered a crucial barrier against climate change, lies in Brazil. Destruction of the forest has surged this year, and the highest number of fires since 2010 has drawn worldwide condemnation of the policies of President Jair Bolsonaro, who advocates opening the Amazon to development.
Cattle graze on a smoldering field that was hit by a fire burning a tract of the Amazon forest as it is cleared by farmers, in Rio Pardo, Rondonia, Brazil. (REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes)
Human Rights Watch travelled to several Brazilian states between 2017 and the first half of this year to research the report, which showed that almost half of the murders linked to deforestation took place in the Northern state of Para.
The town of Novo Progresso, in Para, recently made headlines for a "day of fire," in which prosecutors suspect a coordinated group set a series of blazes to burn forest and pasture land on Aug 10.
Avaci, 77, who is an employee of a farm, fights a fire on a field a