I: RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Landless Leader Acquitted of Double Murder

["nello" <margiotta@tightrope.it>]

-----Messaggio Originale-----
Da: "IGC News Desk" <newsdesk@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroup: misc.activism.progressive
Data invio: domenica 9 aprile 2000 6.14
Oggetto: RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Landless Leader Acquitted of Double Murder


       Copyright 2000 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
          Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.

                      *** 06-Apr-0* ***

Title: RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Landless Leader Acquitted of Double Murder

By Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 6 (IPS) - A Brazilian court cleared Jos‚
Rainha Junior, a leader of the agrarian reform Movimento dos Sem
Terra (MST - Landless Movement), of charges that he was the
''intellectual author'' of a double assassination.

The trial, at the end of its third day in Vitoria, capital of
Espiritu Santo state on Brazil's central coast, concluded Thursday
with a ruling of Rainha's innocence after his defence team proved
that he was nearly 2,000 km from the scene of the crime when the
murders took place June 5, 1989.

Four defence witnesses testified that Rainha Junior was in Cear
at the time, a state in the nation's northeast. In addition, the
testimony of the principal prosecution witness included several
contradictions which the defence used to its advantage.

The jury's ruling, however, was divided as four members found
Rainha innocent while three voted for a guilty verdict.

In his first trial, in 1997, Rainha was sentenced to 26 years and
six months in prison. But Brazilian law stipulates that the
accused have the right to a new trial if the prison sentence
exceeds 20 years.

The first trial was held in Pedro Canario, a town in Espiritu
Santo where the assassination of police officer Sergio Narciso da
Silva and ranch-owner Jos‚ Machado Neto occurred during a dispute
with local MST activists.

In addition to the anti-MST climate in Pedro Canario, it was
proved that several jury members were predisposed to condemn
Rainha, and several were said to be friends of the murdered
rancher. Justice authorities recognised the local ill will toward
the accused and scheduled the new trial to take place in the
state's capital, considered to be a more neutral location.

Tension had been running high in Vitoria since the trial began
Monday as some 3,000 MST activists and leftist politicians who
support the movement rallied outside the courthouse. International
rights activists were also present, including representatives from
Amnesty International.

Meanwhile, the two murder victims' family members and individuals
who condemn the peasant movement, joined in demanding a guilty
verdict for Rainha.

MST leaders had threatened to radicalise their actions if the
court ruled against Rainha. The honorary president of the Workers
Party (PT), Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, and several
parliamentarians were present to express their solidarity with
Rainha and to demand that his name be cleared.

Rainha's legal defence was in the hands of three attorneys,
including Evandro Lins y Silva, 88, a legendary personality of
Brazilian justice considered the best criminal lawyer in the
country.

In his statements, Lins y Silva went beyond outlining the
evidence for Rainha's acquittal, and spoke about agrarian reform,
social justice and globalisation. His performance drew many law
students and attorneys to the courtroom.

Raul Jungmann, minister of Agrarian Affairs, said in Brasilia
that ''justice has been done,'' and applauded the calm in which
the trail took place, in a nation he says ''is no longer dominated
by the big landowners.''

But the violence sparked by land disputes is also the subject of
other pending trials, such as that of the police charged with the
1996 massacre in northern Brazil at Eldorado de Caraj s that left
19 peasants dead.

Following his acquittal, Rainha pointed to the Eldorado de
Caraj s crime as he stressed that justice for the landless will
only be won if those responsible for the rural massacres are
punished and if ''agrarian reform, education for all, citizenship
and dignity'' are achieved.

MST, founded in 1985, put agrarian reform on the national agenda
through its intense peasant mobilisations. Brazil has one of the
world's worst land distribution ratios, as the wealthiest 20
percent of the population owns 90 percent of the land and the
poorest 40 percent hold just one percent.

Its members participate in occupations of rural property they
consider to be non-productive and of government buildings linked
to the agrarian question in order to pressure authorities to
accelerate and expand the creation of rural settlements.

The organisation also carries out frequent protest marches down
the nation's highways, demonstrations in the cities and mass
assemblies. It has organised tens of thousands of peasant families
in camps set up on idle land or highways as they wait for the
government to establish permanent settlements.

Rainha, 39, made his name as a leader of the movement in the
Pontal de Paranapanema region of Sao Paulo state, following the
bloody conflicts between peasants and landowners in Espiritu
Santo.

In the 1990s, he led numerous ranch invasions, which turned him
into one of MST's most-recognised leaders, and has escaped several
arrest warrants.

His wife, Diolinda Alves, has also become a symbol of peasant and
women's struggles. She was twice sent to prison, separated from
her children, as she continued to reaffirm her commitment to
fighting for agrarian reform. (END/IPS/tra-so/mo/mj/ld/00)

Origin: Montevideo/RIGHTS-BRAZIL/
                              ----

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