08/15/2012

Building halt for the controversial Belo Monte Dam in Brazil

A partial victory for the Native Americans

Hanya Riedel/STP

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) is pleased to announce that the controversial Belo Monte Dam building project on the Xingu River in the Brazilian state of Pará was halted by a Brazilian court. "The indigenous and non-indigenous opponents of this mega-project have all the right to celebrate this decision as an important victory," says Yvonne Bangert, the STP's expert on questions regarding the indigenous peoples, about this decision. "It shows that the construction work that has already taken place was illegal. The Indians should have been consulted before the construction work started and should have been involved in any decisions about the project. This never happened – despite repeated complaints."

On Tuesday, the Court followed a request by the State of Pará for an immediate halt for the building project. In case of a violation, the operating consortium Norte Energia might face a daily fine of 200,000 €. The consortium can file an appeal against the decision.

Antonia Melo, spokeswoman for the project opponents of the "Rio Xingo Vivo" association, sees the decision as a historic victory for the country and the people living near the river: "This is a big victory. It shows that the Belo Monte story is not over yet. We are very happy and content." The association, which is internationally known because of Erwin Kräutler, Bishop of Xingu and Alternative Nobel Prize winner, represents the interests of the indigenous and non-indigenous project opponents.

In the past, there have been many fierce protest against the project, which is considered to be a door-opener for the economic development of the Brazilian Amazon region. At the end of July 2012, tribal leaders of the Arara and Juruna had temporarily captured three engineers of Norte Energia, because so-called cofferdams had already blocked the Indian's waterways and affected their fishing. In June 2012, about 300 Native Americans from nine different communities had occupied the building site for three weeks. The Brazilian Government has already been admonished for violating the human rights of the native peoples by the the International Labour Organization (Brazil ratified the ILO-Convention No. 169 on the protection of indigenous communities) and also by the the Human Rights Commission of the Organization of American States.

With a peak capacity of 11,000 MW – and an average of 4428 MW – Belo Monte is supposed to become the world's third largest hydroelectric power plant. 14,000 members of several indigenous communities are affected. At least 20,000 people must be resettled.