March 11, 2002

Dear Foreign Friends,

1. As you must already know, the trial of those officials who took part in the massacre of Carajás will take place starting April 8th, 2002. The trial will be held in the auditorium of the Justice Tribunal of Pará state, in the city of Belém. Judge Eva Coelho will preside over the trial, which will be organized in three large sessions. The first session will begin on April 8, when the four main commanders of the operation will be tried. Each session will last four days. The second session will begin on April 15, to try 17 officials of lower rank. On April 22, the trial of the 129 soldiers who were involved in the operation will begin.

2. The trial of the massacre of Eldorado dos Carajás has been manipulated by the ruling classes, who have used various tricks to avoid punishing those responsible for the death of the 19 rural workers. In our view, the massacre was premeditated and planned, with the objective of punishing the workers who struggle for land reform. The Military Police were directed by the governor of the state, Dr. Almir Gabriel, who still holds office. The Secret Service of the Military Police, headquartered in Marabá, directed the actions of the Military Police that were carried out on April 17, 1996, to open up the highway occupied by more than 600 landless worker families. The Military Police left their quarters without identification on their uniforms and without individual registration of the arms they carried. Instead of opening up the highway, the Military Police blocked the passage with troops who arrived shooting and using tear gas bombs on both sides of the road, surrounding the landless worker families, who began running. The balance was19 workers dead and hundreds wounded, 64 of whom will have life-long consequences. Among the dead, 13 were executed point-blank after being captured and immobilized. One of the MST leaders in that region, Oziel, only 18 years old, was captured and tortured in front of his comrades and afterwards beaten to death. During the torture, the police demanded that he shout "Long Live the MST"! All these facts are in the official findings. In the following years, two more landless workers died as a result of their wounds.

3. Almost seven years have passed and until today, no one has been imprisoned or sentenced for the massacre. In general, an accusation of murder will go to trial the same year. Of the judges in the Tribunal with criminal jurisdiction in Belém, only Dr. Eva Coelho accepted the mission of overseeing the trial of the massacre. The other judges recused themselves from this task. Why? In 1999, the first trial of the massacre took place, but the manipulations of the coordinating judge were so extensive that the jury ended up finding the officials innocent. The MST lawyers withdrew from the trial in protest and the trial was suspended. The Judiciary Power later annulled that trial.

4. So many years have passed that the ruling classes of the state of Pará (basically made up of the cattle barons and a layer of bureaucrats that always enrich themselves with public money, as was shown in the proceedings that led to the resignation of ex-governor and ex-senator Jader Barbalho) are working with the perspective that public opinion has forgotten and the persecution of the MST continues.

5. Six years after the massacre, the new trial was scheduled. But the scenario that they are presenting seems to repeat the farce of the previous trial with the objective of acquitting those responsible, as we can see from the following:

a) Those responsible for the command of the action were Governor Almir Gabriel and his Secretary of Security, who continue in their jobs and who were excluded from the trial.

b) The Federal Government had promised quick approval, using its legislative base, of a law that was going through Congress that would transfer the trials of crimes against human rights to federal jurisdiction. This project has been held up for three years in the Senate.

c) Former judge Otavio Maciel, who prepared the case for trial, in which there are various weaknesses such as the exclusion of the Governor and the Secretary of Security, is retiring and has become the spokesman for the Tribunal to the press. He used this job to take on the MST with statements to the press, clearly going on the attack against the MST.

d) Judge Eva Coelho, who is responsible for the trial and who will preside over the Tribunal, postponed the date of the trial on two occasions, alleging that the prosecuting attorneys had identified irregularities. e) Although there was a technical opinion by experts from the University of Campinas about the videotape that proved the use of rifles by the Military Police at the beginning of the massacre, the Judge did not put this finding into the official documents. This proof is basic because the defense of the military police is based on the idea that the landless workers were armed and initiated the shooting. The expert testimony from the University of Campinas refutes this argument.

f) The members of the jury were chosen in December 2001. There are 21 people, of whom seven will be chosen on the day of the trial. The strange thing is that all are civil servants, the majority of them state employees and some in responsible positions. The municipal and federal employees are in a minority and there are no other representatives of other sectors of society.

g) The defense attorneys for the police prevented the Governor and the Secretary of Security from testifying during the trial.

h) The Prosecuting Attorney did not enlist any testimony from those workers who were present on the day of the massacre. Even the journalists who filmed the massacre are not obliged to testify, just as they did not appear during the first trial.

6. For these reasons, it is evident that the farce being presented for the trial must result in the acquittal of those responsible for the tragedy. The local judicial power is taking advantage of the electoral climate to produce a result favorable to the killers.

7. Thus the only way to try to prevent this farce will be the presence of foreign journalists and of leaders and members of human rights organizations who can denounce the bias of the trial.

WE INVITE ALL FRIENDS FROM OUTSIDE BRAZIL TO MOBILIZE AND BE WITH US THE WEEK OF APRIL 8 TO 11,2002 IN THE CITY OF BELƒM, TO ATTEND THE TRIAL OF THOSE ACCUSED IN THE MASSACRE OF ELDORADO DOS CARAJçS.

8. If there is any need for a letter or a formal invitation to make the visit possible, or if you wish recommendations for lodging, please contact us.

Signed:

Human Rights Collective/MST [Coletivo de Direitos Humanos/MST]
National Popular Lawyers Network/RENAAP [Rede Nacional de Advogados e
Advogadas Populares-RENAAP]
Pastoral Land Commission/CPT [Comissão pastoral da Terra]
Social Network for Justice and Human Rights [Rede Social de Direitos humanos]

São Paulo/Belém

Please Write Letters In Any Language In Favor Of Justice In The Case Of The Carajas Massacre Trial.

Presidente Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Palácio do planalto
pr@planalto.gov.br

Juíza Dra. Eva Coelho
Tribunal de Justiga do para
ecoelho@tje.pa.gov.br