Brazilian tribesmen occupy power plant over burial ground
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 15:35:00 07/26/2010
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil—Hundreds of Amazon tribesmen in war paint on Sunday took over a hydroelectric power plant with 100 employees inside, demanding $5.6 million for the burial and hunting grounds they lost to the dam, media reports said. Talks between some 300 members of at least six different Amazon tribes and the Aguas da Pedra power company broke down recently, triggering the takeover of the Dardanelos power plant and 100 employees working there at the time, Globo News television said.
The protesters said they want to talk with the company and also with representatives of the energy and environmental ministries, as well as the National Indian Foundation (Funai) and Brazil's Environmental Institute. In full war paint, tribal leaders said they want $5.6 million in compensation for cultural and social losses stemming from the destruction of an indigenous burial ground and a tract of hunting grounds since the hydroelectric dam went up nearly three years ago.
Funai coordinator Antonio Carlos Ferreira said the protest leaders believe the construction project lacked appropriate government oversight from the start. The Dardanelos power plant, the first phase of the hydroelectric project Aguas de Pedra, is scheduled to be completed by January of next year in western Matto Grosso state, which includes part of Brazil's vast Amazon jungle. The company is waiting for government approval for a series of community improvement programs it plans to implement in the area, company manager Paulo Rogerio Novaes told local news agency O Dia.
