Brazil killers may get immunity

Federal police surrounding the Roosevelt Indian Reserve in Brazil's Amazon rain forest have developed a list of 12 Cinta Larga Indians they say took part in the massacre of 29 diamond miners last month.

But the suspects may never face jail time. Under the Brazilian Constitution, Indians from isolated communities can be judged incapable of understanding the law and are thus immune from responsibility for breaking it.

The fact that killers may go unpunished has rekindled debate here over indigenous rights. The same laws that grant immunity to Indians also relegates them to second-class citizenship. Observers say it's time that native Brazilians be given the same rights - and have the same responsibilities - as the rest of the country's population.

"It's what we call ... a [Trojan] horse," says anthropologist Alcida Ramos, referring to the law that keeps Indians immune from prosecution but also makes them wards of the state. "Yes, it affords protection in a few situations, but minority status also denies them many of the rights of other Brazilians."

Since the April 7 massacre, federal law-enforcement officials, supported by the Brazilian Army and Air Force, have kept the reserve - 575,000 acres of isolated, pristine rain forest in the state of Rondônia - under a virtual siege. Checkpoints have been installed at all access roads and navigable rivers out of the reserve.

The Cinta Larga territory is said to contain one of South America's richest diamond deposits. Mechanized mineral extraction is illegal on Indian territory in Brazil, but since diamonds were discovered in 2000, thousands of miners have flooded Cinta Larga lands, despite sporadic attempts by federal police and the Brazilian Federal Indian Agency (FUNAI) to have them removed.

In 2003, the Cinta Larga themselves began mining in defiance of Brazilian law, often with technical assistance from non-Indian miners. Disputes over the mining proceeds have been common, and according to federal police may have been at the root of the April 7 killings.

The agents assigned to the case have interviewed dozens of miners who survived the attack, using their testimony to compile the suspect list. Police say they have so far avoided entering tribal territory to apprehend suspects, both to prevent further conflict with the Cinta Larga and to preclude a manhunt in the vast and inhospitable rain forest.

"What we would like is for them to turn themselves over," says Marcos Aurélio Moura, federal police superintendent, who has been negotiating with the Cinta Larga through intermediaries from FUNAI.

But once suspects are in custody, obtaining convictions could be complicated by the Brazilian Constitutional and criminal code, even if police and federal prosecutors determine there is enough evidence to press charges.

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