先住民族ヤノマミ居留地で違法採掘が急増 ブラジル

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】ブラジル北部のアマゾン熱帯雨林にある保護区の先住民族ヤノマミ居留地で、昨年の金の違法採掘が急増したことが、ヤノマミの権利擁護運動を行っている「フトゥカラ協会（ＨＡＹ）」が１１日に公表した報告書で明らかになった。（写真はブラジル・パラ州にある金の違法採掘地。資料写真）
　報告書によると、違法な金の採掘が行われた地域は２０２１年に対前年比で４６％増加し、３２７２ヘクタールに及んだ。１８年に監視活動が始まって以来、最大の増加率になった。
　ＨＡＹは報告書で、「われわれの土地での森林伐採や水源の破壊に加えて、ヤノマミ居留地での金やスズ石の違法採掘は、マラリアや他の感染症の爆発的な拡大や、先住民族に対する暴力の恐ろしいほどの急激な増加をもたらしている」と指摘した。
　違法な採掘は、最近の金価格の上昇に伴って急増。政府の統計によると、アマゾン盆地では昨年、違法採掘によって過去最高の１２５平方キロの土地が破壊された。
　組織犯罪につながる違法採掘者は、先住民族社会に対する数々の暴力事件や、金の抽出に使われる水銀による河川の汚染を引き起こしている。
　報告書は、ジャイル・ボルソナロ大統領が先住民族地域での鉱物採掘の合法化に向けた取り組みを進める中で公表された。
　これによると、採掘者はヤノマミの人々に酒や薬物を与え、女性や少女に性的暴行を働いたりするケースがあるほか、食べ物を対価に肉体関係を要求することもあるという。ＨＡＹは「先住民族の女性は採掘者を多大なる脅威と見なしている」と訴えた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/04/13-12:51）

Illegal gold mining surged by a record amount last year on Brazil's biggest indigenous reservation, said a report published Monday, which carried chilling accounts of abuses by miners, including extorting sex from women and girls.
The area scarred by garimpo, or wildcat gold mining, on the Yanomami reservation in the Amazon rainforest increased by 46 percent in 2021, to 3,272 hectares (8,085 acres), the biggest annual increase since monitoring began in 2018, said the report by the Hutukara Yanomami Association (HAY).
This is the worst moment of invasion since the reservation was established 30 years ago, said the indigenous-rights group, in a report based on satellite images and interviews with inhabitants.
In addition to deforesting our lands and destroying our waters, illegal mining for gold and cassiterite (a key tin ingredient) on Yanomami territory has brought an explosion of malaria and other infectious diseases... and a frightening surge of violence against indigenous people.
Illegal mining has soared in the Amazon as gold prices have surged recently.
Mining destroyed a record 125 square kilometers (nearly 50 square miles) of the Brazilian Amazon basin last year, according to official figures.
Illegal miners with links to organized crime are accused of numerous abuses in indigenous communities, including sometimes deadly attacks on residents and poisoning rivers with the mercury used to separate gold from sediment.
The report comes as far-right President Jair Bolsonaro pushes legislation to legalize mining on native lands, drawing protests from indigenous groups and environmentalists.
The Yanomami, one of the Amazon's most iconic indigenous groups, related a harrowing series of abuses.
They included miners giving Yanomami alcohol and drugs, then sexually abusing and raping women and girls.
The Yanomami said miners often demanded sex in exchange for food. One miner reportedly demanded an arranged marriage with an adolescent girl in exchange for merchandise he never delivered.
Indigenous women see the miners as a terrible threat, said HAY, condemning a climate of terror and permanent fear.
The Yanomami reservation spans 9.7 million hectares in northern Brazil, with around 29,000 inhabitants, including the Yanomami, the Ye'kwana and six isolated groups who have almost no contact with the outside world.
Brazilian environmental and indigenous authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Federal prosecutors said they would investigate the report's allegations with a view to possibly bringing criminal charges.
They said they had already filed a court case last month aimed at forcing Bolsonaro's government, which has been accused of going easy on illegal mining, to resume protective actions and police operations against illegal 'garimpo' on the Yanomami reservation.