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Chief Raoni Metuktire - Statement of support to the Munduruku people fighting future powerplants on the Tapajós and Teles Pires Rivers

Chief Raoni Metuktire - Statement of support to the Munduruku people fighting future powerplants on the Tapajós and Teles Pires Rivers

Statement of support from Chief Raoni Metuktire to the Munduruku people and other indigenous and ribeirinhos peoples fighting future powerplants on the Tapajós and Teles Pires Rivers

With this statement, I, Chief Raoni Metuktire, Chief of the Mebengokre (Kayapo) people, wish to bring my support to the Munduruku people and to the other indigenous and ribeirhinos peoples involved in the fight against the power plants on the Tapajos and Teles Pires, and especially to the caravan being organized on November 26th and 27th along the Tapajós River.

I have always been fighting not only for my people but also for all the indigenous peoples of the Amazon, in order for us to live peacefully and harmoniously on our lands. Today, after so many years of struggle, we have to rise again and fight because after having destroyed our forests, they are now destroying our rivers which are necessary to our survival. These rivers are the blood that flows in our veins: without them, the earth and the animals will die and so shall we.

I am extremely worried about my Munduruku brothers and the other indigenous and ribheirinos peoples of the Tapajos and Teles Pires Rivers. If the government carries out its destructive project, it will be signing their death warrant. Because of these dams, the fish will be unable to swim upstream to spawn. The flooded forest will rot very fast and the water will become toxic to fish and humans. The activity generated by the dams will speed up the destruction of the forest and the game. Traditional fishing and hunting which supply food to these populations will become impossible. The stagnant water in the tanks will generate a multiplication of mosquitoes, and the people who have refused to go away will be forced to, because of malaria.

The government keeps violating our right to free and enlightened, prior consultation. It does not hesitate to resort to terror to drive our Munduruku brothers away from their land. Indeed, the federal police have executed one of them in front of his family and relatives in his own village of Teles Pires. 
 
The government praises the compensation programmes set up with the constructors. These programmes are imposed by force, intimidation, threat and blackmail. The life of a people against a piece of paper displaying a few promises. But promises are quickly forgotten. The very existence of these programmes and the violence used to force them upon people show that those who build these dams know they are destroying our lives. What is being taken away from the indigenous people by uprooting them will never be recouped. 
 
 
The wealth of an Indian is his culture. In town, he is nobody, he is poorer that the poor. He has to accept the most humiliating chores to survive. Very quickly, he loses his language and his traditions. He loses his dignity and his pride of being Indian. He becomes a welfare recipient. Many choose alcohol, drugs and suicide to escape from the heartbreak of having lost their lives and their future. Uprooting indigenous people is similar to genocide. These compensation programmes are an insult. All the money in the world would not be enough to  repay the debt that those who want to build these dams are incurring with the indigenous peoples. 
I have travelled throughout the world and explained everywhere that these rivers and the forest we are fighting for are important to all of us, without exception. The future of man, whether he be white, black, yellow or Indian is at stake here. I am extremely worried for I know that the world is not really receptive and not quite ready to wake up. Today, as we are being more threatened than ever by the development of projects of the Brazilian government of President Dilma Rousseff, we need the support of the international community and all the citizens of the world. Tomorrow it will be too late, not only for us but for all those we are turning to today.
We need to come together to ask the Brazilian government to preserve the rights of indigenous peoples on their land. We, the indigenous peoples of Brazil, have been suffering a slow death and deprived of our lands for 514 years.
The world must exert pressure on the multinational companies that are part and parcel of the projects of destructive dams set up by the Brazilian government,  to give up these projects, which are already destroying  our vital environment. Whilst in Europe, in June this year, with my nephew Megaron Txucarramae, I exposed the participation of French, German and Dutch companies in that construction. We challenged French deputies and the President of the National Assembly of that country about the shameful involvement of EDF, an 84% state-owned firm, in the building of the Sinop dam, and about the obvious desire of GDF-Suez to enter the bid for the next dams to be built on the Tapajos.
We know this is a global fight and it is only with global support that we can hope to prevent the lungs of the planet our magnificent rainforest, from dying. Only unity will enable us to save our rivers, our forest, our planet.
I bring my unconditional support to the struggle of the Mundurukus, just like they have supported the fight against the Belo Monte dam, a cause we have not given up and will never give up. Even if that dam or others become operational, we will never stop fighting, until they are completely dismantled, just like our indigenous Hoopa, Yurok, Karuk and Klamath brothers in California, USA, after twelve years of struggle obtained the demolition of the network of power plants on the Klamath River, even though completed and operating.
We, the indigenous peoples of Brazil, who have so much to give to the world, have been disappearing one after the other for 514 years, always for the same reason.
We have been plundered and slaughtered. Today those who remain only wish to live peacefully on their land.
To my Munduruku brothers and to all those peoples who are fighting for their survival and the survival of the Xingu, Tapajos, Teles Pires Rivers and all the other rivers under threat throughout I have always been fighting not only for my people but also for all the indigenous peoples of the Amazon, in order for us to live peacefully and harmoniously on our lands. Today, after so many years of struggle, we have to rise again and fight because after having destroyed our forests, they are now destroying our rivers which are necessary to our survival. These rivers are the blood that flows in our veins: without them, the earth and the animals will die and so shall we.I am extremely worried about my Munduruku brothers and the other indigenous and ribheirinos peoples of the Tapajos and Teles Pires Rivers. If the government carries out its destructive project, it will be signing their death warrant. Because of these dams, the fish will be unable to swim upstream to spawn. The flooded forest will rot very fast and the water will become toxic to fish and humans. The activity generated by the dams will speed up the destruction of the forest and the game. Traditional fishing and hunting which supply food to these populations will become impossible. The stagnant water in the tanks will generate a multiplication of mosquitoes, and the people who have refused to go away will be forced to, because of malaria.

The government keeps violating our right to free and enlightened, prior consultation. It does not hesitate to resort to terror to drive our Munduruku brothers away from their land. Indeed, the federal police have executed one of them in front of his family and relatives in his own village of Teles Pires.  The government praises the compensation programmes set up with the constructors. These programmes are imposed by force, intimidation, threat and blackmail. The life of a people against a piece of paper displaying a few promises. But promises are quickly forgotten. The very existence of these programmes and the violence used to force them upon people show that those who build these dams know they are destroying our lives. What is being taken away from the indigenous people by uprooting them will never be recouped.   

The wealth of an Indian is his culture. In town, he is nobody, he is poorer that the poor. He has to accept the most humiliating chores to survive. Very quickly, he loses his language and his traditions. He loses his dignity and his pride of being Indian. He becomes a welfare recipient. Many choose alcohol, drugs and suicide to escape from the heartbreak of having lost their lives and their future. Uprooting indigenous people is similar to genocide. These compensation programmes are an insult. All the money in the world would not be enough to  repay the debt that those who want to build these dams are incurring with the indigenous peoples. 

I have travelled throughout the world and explained everywhere that these rivers and the forest we are fighting for are important to all of us, without exception. The future of man, whether he be white, black, yellow or Indian is at stake here. I am extremely worried for I know that the world is not really receptive and not quite ready to wake up. Today, as we are being more threatened than ever by the development of projects of the Brazilian government of President Dilma Rousseff, we need the support of the international community and all the citizens of the world. Tomorrow it will be too late, not only for us but for all those we are turning to today.

The world must exert pressure to ask the Brazilian government to preserve the rights of indigenous peoples on their land. We, the indigenous peoples of Brazil, have been suffering a slow death and deprived of our lands for 514 years. 

The world must exert pressure on the multinational companies that are part and parcel of the projects of destructive dams set up by the Brazilian government,  to give up these projects, which are already destroying  our vital environment. Whilst in Europe, in June this year, with my nephew Megaron Txucarramae, I exposed the participation of French, German and Dutch companies in that construction. We challenged French deputies and the President of the National Assembly of that country about the shameful involvement of EDF, an 84% state-owned firm, in the building of the Sinop dam, and about the obvious desire of GDF-Suez to enter the bid for the next dams to be built on the Tapajos.

We know this is a global fight and it is only with global support that we can hope to prevent the lungs of the planet our magnificent rainforest, from dying. Only unity will enable us to save our rivers, our forest, our planet.

I bring my unconditional support to the struggle of the Mundurukus, just like they have supported the fight against the Belo Monte dam, a cause we have not given up and will never give up. Even if that dam or others become operational, we will never stop fighting, until they are completely dismantled, just like our indigenous Hoopa, Yurok, Karuk and Klamath brothers in California, USA, after twelve years of struggle obtained the demolition of the network of power plants on the Klamath River, even though completed and operating.

We, the indigenous peoples of Brazil, who have so much to give to the world, have been disappearing one after the other for 514 years, always for the same reason.

We have been plundered and slaughtered. Today those who remain only wish to live peacefully on their land.

To my Munduruku brothers and to all those peoples who are fighting for their survival and the survival of the Xingu, Tapajos, Teles Pires Rivers and all the other rivers under threat throughout the world.

 

Chief RAONI METUKTIRE, Kayapo people, Mato Grosso, Brazil
Colider, November 14,2014.

Translation by Nadia Kadry - special thanks to Lizzie Cornish

Date : 21/11/2014

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