The legal tug-of-war concerning the project for the huge hydro-electric plant in Brazil on the Xingu River in the Brazilian federal state Pará continues. Surprisingly the federal court in the provincial capital of Altamira has stopped the call for tender for the construction of the third largest dam in the world with a temporary injunction. "For the Kayapó, Assurini and Juruna Indians this decision is by no means a reason to breathe out”, said Yvonne Bangert, consultant for indigenous peoples of the Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) on Tuesday in Göttingen. "For it is still to be feared that it will be reversed at short notice by the Public Prosecutor.” Last Wednesday (14.4.) the federal judge Antonio Carlos Almeida Campelo had withdrawn the environment licence for the construction of the dam. But 48 hours later a federal court in Brasilia gave the green light for the the call for tender to be opened on 20th April.

If the hydro-electric power-station is built on this third largest dam in the world the Indians will lose irrevocably their means of subsistence. An area covering approximately 500 sq km of rain-forest and farming land is to be flooded. About 20,000 people will have to leave their homes and parts of the town of Altamira will also disappear in the reservoir.

"President Lula da Silva clearly wants to force the project through before his term of office terminates in October although it infringes the the Brazilian constitution, Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation of the United Nations and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”, criticised Bangert. According to these agreements, which have been ratified by Brazil, the indigenous people must be involved in the planning. For this reason the STP is appealing not only to the Brazilian ambassador in Berlin, Everton Veira Vargas, to press President Lula da Silva to take action for the preservation of the rain-forest on the Rio Xingu. The human rights organisation has also started a petition against the dam project (www.gfbv.de).

The prominent Hollywood director David Cameron and the film-actress Sigourney Weaver also support the Indians on the Rio Xingu. Cameron, who made films like Avatar and Titanic, demonstrated on 12th April in Brasilia against the Belo Monte dam with Weaver and 700 opponents of the project.

Yvonne Bangert, consultant for indigenous peoples, will be glad to provide further information at publikationen@gfbv.de.