(Refiling to fix typographical error in penultimate paragraph
to make it "era" instead of "area")
By Anthony Boadle
BRASILIA, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Brazil's government is
preparing a task force involving several government agencies and
enforcement bodies that will soon launch an operation to remove
illegal gold miners from the Yanomami reservation, indigenous
leader Joenia Wapichana said on Tuesday.
Wapichana will in a few days become the first indigenous
person to head the government's indigenous affairs agency Funai,
appointed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has
pledged to expel wildcat miners from protected indigenous lands.
Speaking to journalists on an Amazon-based journalism
platform called Sumaúma, Wapichana said she could not give
details of the imminent operation in order to not alert the
miners that have invaded the Yanomami territory.
"We have to let the police forces organize the operation in
secret; the message from President Lula is that it will happen
soon and cannot delay long," she said.
Wapichana said the task forces, as in past offensive against
illegal miners, will involve the Federal Police, the army, the
environmental protection agency Ibama, several ministries and
Funai.
Some 20,000 wildcat miners are searching for gold in
Brazil's largest indigenous reservation in Roraima state on the
border with Venezuela, where they have polluted waters with
mercury used to separate the metal from ore and earth, official
say.
The miners are increasingly associated with well-armed gangs
that have terrorized indigenous communities that for the first
time cannot feed themselves, resulting in widespread
malnutrition and deaths among the 28,000 Yanomami.
Lula last week declared a medical emergency in the Yanomami
territory, and on Monday his government ordered a no-fly
airspace over the reservation and steps to block river traffic
heading to gold prospects.
Wapichana said about 40 small planes fly to clandestine
airstrips each day, with food and other supplies, and the help
of the Air Force is required to stop the flights that Brazil's
previous far-right government did nothing to prevent.
The miners use the rivers to take heavier machinery and
fuel to their prospects, which are muddy ponds where they dredge
for gold in forest clearings.
Medical studies show that the mercury used by the miners has
polluted the rivers, killing the fish and contaminating the
water that the Yanomami rely on.
Wapichana said the government will move against the
organized crime and financial groups that supply and fund the
illegal mining, and launder the gold.
Lula's predecessor, former President Jair Bolsonaro,
advocated mining on protected indigenous lands and his
government turned a blind eye to invasions of indigenous
reservations by wildcat miners and illegal loggers.
Wapichana is confident the Brazilian military, which
supported Bolsonaro, will obey Lula's orders to crack down on
illegal mining on lands that are protected by the Constitution.
"We are in a new era. We have a strong and responsible
president who had the courage to go to Roraima and declare
publicly that this operation to expel the miners has to be done
as soon as possible." she said.
She said those responsible for the humanitarian crisis the
Yanomami are suffering will be punished for negligence and
perhaps for committing genocide.
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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