12.08.2009
MAB mobilizes throughout Brazil
Dam Affected People participate in the Workers’ Struggle Campaign

 The Movement of Dam Affected People (MAB) participates in the activities of the August Struggle Campaign with camps, marches, occupations and mobilizations in dams. On 11/08, the second day of the camping protest in the State of Rondonia in front of the worksite of the Hydroelectric Power Plant Santo Antonio, a regiment of Military Police presented the protesters with a preventive order emitted on the request of the construction Consortium Energia Santo Antônio. Even so, the protesters remain camped in the place and continue as normal with their assemblies, interventions in the neighbourhoods etc.

The objective of the camping protest of the dam affected people is to publicly denounce a series of human rights violations practiced against riverine communities throughout the construction process of the Hydroelectric Complex of Madeira River. Leaders of MAB complain that “[we] have asked for an audience with the companies and the government to formally express our frustration for the situation and seek solutions to the problems. And the company has responded with a preventive order which was handed to us by 30 heavily armed policemen”.

Also in the State of Ceará, since the early hours of Wednesday (12/08), around 600 dam affected people have occupied the State Secretariat of Agrarian Development (SDA). The protesters have been expelled from their land by the Acauã and Aracoiaba dams in the valley of Jaguaribe River, and by the e Aracoiaba dam in the Maciço do Baturité region. They demand debt cancellation for small farmers, land for the settlement of the children of dam affected people and technical assistance for all the settlements, free access to water etc. They also demand talks with Denocs, INCRA, SDA and the Secretariat of Water Resources as a precondition to evacuate the secretariat.

Also yesterday, around 500 farmers, members of MAB and Via Campesina set up a camp in the municipality of Pinhal da Serra (State of Rio Grande do Sul). The objective is to debate the social rights of the people living in the hydrographical basin of Uruguai River and press the authorities to look into their demands like: access to water and electricity with social tariff; preservation and recuperation of degraded forest areas; debt cancellation up to R$ 10.000 and special credit of R$ 2.500,00 per family for food production.

In Estreito Dam, in the division of the States Tocantins and Maranhão, 1300 dam affected people are camped in front of the Hydroelectric Power Plant of Estreito for the last 23 days. They demand that the companies-owners of the dam, Camargo Corrêa, Alcoa, Vale and Suez-Tractebel, recognise the fishermen, sharecroppers and indigenous people as affected by the dam and resolve the problems caused by the project.

Brasilia

In Brasilia, around 200 dam affected people from the States of Tocantins, Goiás and Minas Gerais remain in the National Camp set up by the movements of Via Campesina. After the occupation of the Ministry of Economy yesterday, the protesters secured a meeting with an inter-ministerial committee in order to discuss the demands of the social movements. In that meeting MAB presented the demands of the movement on the national level which include: right to proper living conditions, work, credit and secured income, energy and social tariff for low income families amongst other demands.

Also in Brasília, in the Federal Senate, a public audience took place today to discuss the violation of human rights caused by the Hydroelectric Dam of Tucuruí. The audience was arranged by the Human Rights and Participatory Legislation Commission (CDH), to discuss the denunciations with respect to the intensification of repression against workers fighting to guarantee their basic rights in the region. Leaders of MAB were present, along with representatives of Eletronorte, Ministry of Mines and Energy, the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), in addition to representatives of other social movements present in the national camp.

The outcome of the meeting was that in the second half of September, this commission will meet again in order to launch the Regional Inclusion Plan of Tucuruí. The federal organs assumed the responsibility to conduct a registration process and take the necessary measures in order to resettle around 12.000 families which live today in the islands formed by the reservoir, without electricity or basic infrastructure like schools, health posts, roads etc. In addition, it was decided that the same group will meet again in January 2010 in order to evaluate the progress of the plan.