Peasants, loggers clash
Prevention is always better than cure, whether it is a disease or a conflict. The army was recently sent to Brazil's Amazon rainforest region to quell violent clashes between peasants and loggers over the area's natural resources. The move followed the killing of Dorothy Stang, a 73-year-old nun who tried to prevent loggers from destroying the forest. A local leader and a peasant were also killed after Stang's murder.
The decision to send troops to restore law and order in the area was taken by the country's defence minister and vice president Jose Alencar. But environmentalists and supporters of the region's poor settlers say this is a mere temporary solution. The real need is to resolve the basic disputes among settlers, land sharks and loggers and ranchers. "As soon as they [troops] leave, we'll be back in the same situation,' warns Tomas Balduino, president of the Roman Catholic Church-linked Land Pastoral Group, which helps landless farmers. "It's an emergency and the army has to go in to guarantee security, but we have to resolve the root problems,' suggests Nilo D'Avila of the environmental group Greenpeace.