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| 14-year-old Haraldo Yanomami making a necklace from porcupine quills, Demini, Brazil.
©1996 Fiona Watson/Survival |
On 23 and 28 November, Yanomami
Indians invaded the offices of the National Health Foundation FUNASA in
Boa Vista to demand that it resume health care to the Yanomami in their
communities. Health work has been paralysed for weeks as FUNASA has not
paid its staff, and no health teams or medicines are being flown into
the area. Yanomami spokesman Dário Vitório said that, 'Malaria,
dysentry and other illnesses are increasing again. We are very sad
about this.'
In the region of Toototobi, the NGO CCPY reports that, between 15 and
22 November alone, 40 cases of malaria were recorded. In Amazonas state
about 5,000 Yanomami are receiving no health care and according to the
NGO SECOYA, there have been over 700 cases of malaria recorded among
the Yanomami living along the Marauiá and Padauiri rivers.
Davi Kopenawa, president of the Yanomami organisation Hutukara, in an
open letter says, 'We Yanomami are very worried indeed because the xawara (contagious diseases) in our forest will not go away. We don't all want to die again because of the xawara.
Thinking about this makes us very worried and sad. The FUNASA people do
not want to send money for the Yanomami as they should do. They only
spend money in the city. They do not help us to buy medicines. For this
reason, some of our children have died. In our land there is no
medicine and so the dangerous xawara are increasing in our homes.'
At an extraordinary meeting of the Yanomami and Ye'kuana District
Council on 1 December in Boa Vista, indigenous leaders released a
statement. In all the history of indigenous health, we have never seen
such suffering provoked by the total negligence of the government and
health authorities.'
The health situation is aggravated by the presence of goldminers
working illegally in the Yanomami territory. In one community they were
reported to have expelled government health workers. Many Yanomami fear
that if the goldminers are not swiftly removed by the police, diseases
will spread and violent conflict will erupt.
