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- Aug 18, 2002
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I have just finished The Zombie Survival Guide:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400049628/revenantmagaz-21
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400049628/wwwrevenantmc-20
and this tale struck me as one of those ones that you are supposed to watch out for
That aside it strikes me as odd - the sheer numbers for starters and it feels like there is something else odd going on there. That said it might just be the after effects of the ZSG so.........
[edit: Well wet my pants - I'm getting my kit together and heading for the hills - the second report just reeks of major zombie outbreak
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040420-125653-3398r.htm
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040421.wamaz0421/BNStory/Front/
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9353721%5E1702,00.html
A fierce warrior people? And the native people's usually have far better oral traditions than we urbanised folks....... ]
Emps
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400049628/revenantmagaz-21
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400049628/wwwrevenantmc-20
and this tale struck me as one of those ones that you are supposed to watch out for
That aside it strikes me as odd - the sheer numbers for starters and it feels like there is something else odd going on there. That said it might just be the after effects of the ZSG so.........
Bodies of Brazilian miners found
By Steve Kingstone
BBC correspondent in Sao Paulo
The bodies of 26 diamond prospectors have been discovered in the Amazon region of Brazil.
The men had encroached on an Indian reservation and it is thought they were killed by indigenous people.
The area - deep in the jungle and close to the border with Bolivia - is believed to hold South America's largest diamond reserves.
Under Brazilian law, mining in Indian reservations is not permitted but that does not stop many prospectors.
The bodies were found by members of Funai, the government agency responsible for indigenous affairs.
Its team discovered the remains of 26 diamond miners - three other bodies were recovered a week ago.
The grim find appears to confirms reports of a violent attack on miners by local Indians.
Fortune seekers
About 1,000 indigenous people live in the area, which has been officially designated an Indian reservation.
Mining is illegal but that has not stopped hundreds of poor Brazilians travelling to the region hoping to make their fortune from diamonds.
Some make deals with Indian chiefs; those who do not run the risk of a confrontation.
The state governor of Rondonia says the solution lies either in improved security or the legalisation of diamond mining.
The government is considering that idea. In the meantime, a team of police officers has been sent into the jungle to recover the bodies.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3636053.stm
Published: 2004/04/18 00:41:21 GMT
© BBC MMIV
[edit: Well wet my pants - I'm getting my kit together and heading for the hills - the second report just reeks of major zombie outbreak
Death tolls rises in Indian-miner battle
Porto Velho, , Apr. 20 (UPI) -- More than 60 diamond miners may have been killed in clashes with Brazilian Indians in a remote northwestern state, local news sources reported Tuesday.
According to officials in the state of Rondonia, the bodies of 29 miners have already been recovered and another 35 men are believed dead.
In all, 99 men are still missing, Agencia Estado reported Tuesday.
Indian groups Monday celebrated Brazil's national "Day of the Indian" by converging on Congress in Brasilia.
In recent weeks there have been numerous reports of miners and reservation dwellers in Rondonia battling to the death, the latter leaving behind the mutilated corpses of the prospectors.
Though Brazilian law prohibits mining on reservation land, some chiefs are reportedly selling the rights to miners, while others are prospecting for the precious gems themselves.
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040420-125653-3398r.htm
POSTED AT 8:04 PM EDT Wednesday, Apr. 21, 2004
Indians massacre miners in Brazil
Porto Velho, Brazil — Police began retrieving the bodies of 26 diamond prospectors killed in a mysterious clash with Indians in the Amazon jungle, and the state's governor said that the death toll could rise.
The bodies of another 30 prospectors could still be inside the reserve in northwest Brazil, also victims of the attack that saw Cinta Larga Indians apparently massacre dozens of prospectors on April 7.
Four days later, the first three bodies were found and taken out of the reserve. On Sunday, more federal police were flown into the state to help with the removal of bodies and seal off the reserve so miners would not return. They set to work clearing areas of the jungle to allow helicopters to land.
“Unfortunately many other bodies will be found,” said Rondonia state Governor Ivo Cassol. “This is due to the slowness of the federal agencies.”
Firmino Aparecido, the city police chief of Espigao d'Oeste, about 95 kilometres from the reserve, said the miners were all shot to death. Some news reports said some of the victims had been clubbed to death, then hacked to pieces. Other were reportedly beheaded.
Tensions between prospectors and Indians have flared often in recent years, but little was known about the reasons for the latest violence. In the past, some chiefs have charged prospectors for access to the reserve even though Brazilian law forbids mining there.
The bodies of the dead were spread within a one kilometre area, Chief Aparecido said Saturday. Citing information from local prospectors, he said the bodies of at least another 30 prospectors could still be somewhere inside the reserve, home to some 1,300 Indians and South America's largest diamond reserves.
The 2.7 million hectare reserve, which is under federal jurisdiction and off limits to state police, is some 600 kilometres southeast of Porto Velho, capital of Rondonia state.
The Cinta Larga, hunters with a strong warrior tradition, lived in relative isolation until the early 1960s, when the first prospectors and loggers started to enter traditional Indian lands in search of diamonds and gold and timber.
“Recovery will be a difficult and unpleasant task,” said Roberto Lustosa, of the Federal Indian Bureau. “Many of the bodies have been partially eaten by wild animals and all are decomposed after more than 10 days in the jungle.”
In recent years, tensions between prospectors and Indians have flared as more and more prospectors have sought riches in the vast jungle region.
In March 2002, authorities forcibly removed some 3,000 prospectors who had invaded the reservation. Two months earlier, police found the remains of seven people suspected to be prospectors and arrows nearby. In January 2003, federal police evicted some 5,000 prospectors.
Between 1999 and 2002, the bodies of 30 prospectors have been found inside the Roosevelt reserve, according to the Federal Indian Bureau.
Chief Aparecido said the approximately 100 Cinta Larga Indians who lived in Espigao d'Oeste have left the city, fearing reprisals.
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040421.wamaz0421/BNStory/Front/
Miner massacre a warning: tribe
From correspondents in On The Roosevelt Indian Reservation, Brazil
April 22, 2004
AN Amazonian tribal chief has said the killing of 29 diamond prospectors on his remote Indian reservation was intended as a warning for white miners to stay away.
In his first meeting with reporters since the April 7 massacre, Chief Pio Cinta Larga told The Associated Press there were no more bodies to be found in the 2.7-million-hectare reservation, which has often been invaded by illegal prospectors.
“We told them we didn't want them here and they kept coming back. The warriors lost patience and this is what happened,” Cinta Larga told the AP. His tribe is the only one that lives in the area of the killings.
Cinta Larga defended the killings as part of the tribe's culture.
“We are warriors,” said Cinta Larga. “Before the white man came, none of the tribes here were friends. We fought and killed each other, that is how we resolved things.”
Federal police have said the 29 miners were killed by the Cinta Larga Indian tribe in a dispute over diamond mining. The reservation is believed to have South American's largest diamond reserves.
Investigators indicated most of the miners were lined up and killed at short range with arrows, clubs, spears and firearms. Many of the bodies appeared to have been tortured or mutilated.
Cinta Larga said the tribe accepted responsibility for the action as a group, but distanced himself somewhat from the killings.
“There are some very angry Indians and not even the leadership can control their actions,” he said.
Asked about an ongoing Federal police investigation to find those responsible, Cinta Larga said it was the Federal Indian bureau that deals with such aspects of “white man's law.”
The president of Brazil's Federal Indian Bureau has said he considered the Indians to be acting in legitimate self defense because both mining and trespassing by non-Indians are illegal on Indian reservations.
Those comments only served to fuel already high tension between the heavily armed Indians and prospectors.
“It's illegal to mine on Indian land, it's also illegal to kill,” said Celso Antim of the prospector's union in Espigao d'Oeste, about 100 kilometres from the reservation.
Antim said the killings would not keep prospectors off the reservation for long.
“There will be a little pause, but then they'll all go back because they're all going hungry,” he said. “This time, though, they'll go back armed.”
Cinta Larga warned that prospectors who returned should know they were taking their lives in their hands.
He said the solution is to change the law so Indians can legally mine on their lands.
Currently, the Indians mine the diamonds in violation of Federal law and sell them on the black market in violation of the international Kimberly protocol, which governs the sale and trade of diamonds.
A task force composed of hundreds of State and Federal agents has been deployed in and around the reservation 600 kilometres southwest of Porto Velho, capital of the western state of Rondonia that borders Bolivia.
Expected to remain in the region for up to six months, the task force is disarming prospectors and Indians and will try to put an end to mining and prospecting activities in the reservation.
But officials here said ending the illegal prospecting will not be easy.
“Prospecting isn't something that ends from one day to another. It will be reactivated there is a great desire for diamonds and the diamonds on the reservation are very good,” said Amoss de Mello Oliveira, a geologist working with the police.
He estimated that diamonds found here were much more than $US40 () a carat, which is the price of the average Brazilian diamonds. He said Roosevelt reservation diamonds were worth around US0 (3) a carat.
Brazil's Mines and Energy Ministry estimated some US (.73) billion were taken out of the area, since prospecting began in 1999.
Clashes between Indians and prospectors have claimed at least 70 lives since diamond mining began.
The Cinta Larga Indians were first contacted by outsiders in the late 1960s, but development has been at best a mixed blessing.
Many of the Indians are fairly well off, dressing in western-style clothing and driving pick-up trucks.
About two-thirds of the 1300-strong tribe have learned Portuguese, Brazil's national language, but the remaining Indians maintain the tribe's fierce warrior traditions.
The discovery of diamonds has also fueled problems of alcoholism, drug abuse and sexually transmitted diseases among the Indians.
In 2002, police forcibly evicted some 3000 prospectors and the Indians decided to take up mining. They distribute profits among the tribe.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9353721%5E1702,00.html
A fierce warrior people? And the native people's usually have far better oral traditions than we urbanised folks....... ]
Emps