[12/12/06] Reuters Reports: Brazil Indians occupy Aracruz port

BRASILIA, Brazil, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Some 100 Brazilian Indians and land-rights protestors stopped shipments from one of the world's largest wood pulp producers on Tuesday after they occupied a major port to demand land owned by the company.

Indians from the Guarani and Tupiniquim tribes brought the Portocel port of Aracruz Celulose (ARA.N: Quote, Profile , Research) (ARZ6.SA: Quote, Profile , Research) in Espirito Santo state on Brazil's southeast coast to a standstill.

"The interruption of operations at Portocel directly affects the national economy because it handles 90 percent of Brazil's wood pulp exports," Aracruz said in a statement.

Wood pulp producer Cenibra also exports via Portocel.

The peaceful occupation was part of a dispute between Indians and Aracruz over 42 square miles (11,000 hectares) of land.

The Indians claim ancestral rights to the land, but Aracruz has legal title and has produced anthropological studies to dispute the indigenous claims.

A spokesman for Brazil's Indian agency, FUNAI, said it was preparing a letter asking indigenous leaders to abandon the occupation because it might hurt their chances of winning the legal battle for the land.

Protestors from Brazil's large landless workers movement, the MST, were also part of the port occupation, Aracruz said in the statement.

The MST stages land invasions to push for reform in Brazil, where 1 percent of the population owns 47 percent of the land.

Aracruz, the world's largest producer of bleached eucalyptus pulp, owns thousands of hectares planted with eucalyptus near the Espirito Santo port.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
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