[02/10/2006] Convictions have not brought justice in nun's murder

Convictions have not brought justice in nun's murder
Friday, February 10, 2006
David Stang and Emily S. Goldman

A year ago Sister Dorothy Stang was shot and killed in Brazil's Amazon rainforest. The gunmen had been hired by wealthy ranchers and loggers who feared her efforts to protect the human rights of the poor and landless.

Two men were tried and found guilty in December and given stiff sentences - quite a rarity in land-access cases in Brazil. We applaud the successful trial as a positive step toward ensuring justice. This is the first time that such a crime has been brought to trial in less than a year.

The case is one of hundreds of similar murders of religious, union and community leaders who were fighting to end social and economic injustice in Brazil. Full justice must be done in Stang's case, and a legal precedent set, if Brazil is to begin to systematically combat the widespread violence against the landless and the impunity shrouding those crimes.

Stang, born in Dayton, spent the last 30 years of her life working with the poor in the Amazon. She faced overwhelming challenges with courage and determination. Her long-term vision centered on human rights and the sustainable use of natural resources. She confronted Brazil's state and federal governments and asked that they combat the lawlessness of the ranchers and loggers.

Brazil is one of the world's largest economies, but it is marked by severe economic inequality and a grave disparity between landed haves and the have-nots. Less than 3 percent of Brazil's population owns two-thirds of the arable land. Illegal ranchers and loggers appropriate public lands, create false deeds to prove their ownership, and are often in cahoots with local and state authorities.

There has never been a land reform that has fully addressed these issues.

Between 1985 and 2002, there were 1,280 recorded murders and 6,330 arrests of rural workers, lawyers, union leaders and religious workers aligned with the struggle for land. Of these murders, only 121 have been prosecuted. Of those who ordered the murders, only 14 were charged, resulting in seven convictions. Of the intermediaries, four were charged, resulting in two convictions. Of the 96 gunmen tried, 58 were convicted.

Structural problems are also at fault. For more than a decade, the World Bank has been funding its "market-based" land reform to facilitate land transfers while overlooking pressing social and environmental concerns. Many of Brazil's social movements strongly oppose the World Bank model and instead support a human rights-based land reform that ensures the dignity of the landless and sustainable environmental practices.

INCRA, the Brazilian land reform ministry, is grossly underfunded and unable to make a dent in the land- lessness problem. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has failed to secure the vital funding needed to enable INCRA to fully carry out the land reform mandated by the Brazilian Constitution, the ideas for which Stang fought.

What should justice in Sister Dorothy Stang's case look like?

While the successful legal proceedings thus far give us reason to believe that there is potential for a legal precedent to be set, much more needs to be done to ensure justice in this case and break the historic pattern of impunity.

We call for a prompt joint trial of the two wealthy landowners and one intermediary who were directly implicated by the gunmen in open court as having promised them $22,000 (U.S.) to kill Dorothy. We urge the Brazilian government to carry out a full investigation to identify the other members of a consortium of wealthy ranchers who helped plan and finance the murder.

Furthermore, we call on the Brazilian government to implement the systemic changes to which Dorothy dedicated her life as a way to address and overcome the historic problems of land inequity, environmental destruction and lawlessness.

Land reform based on socioeconomic justice and environmental sustainability would go far toward reducing violence in land-access cases. President Lula now has the opportunity to demonstrate his commitment to what he has sought for more than a generation: land and dignity for the landless. His concrete steps now will help ensure Stang's legacy of social justice.

Stang is the youngest brother of Sister Dorothy and a former missionary in Tanzania. Goldman is senior program officer at the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights in Washington, D.C.

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