Brazilian Indigenous Peoples Urge ICC to Investigate Bolsonaro Over 'Genocide'

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples from Brazil (Apib) has turned to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for help in investigating President Jair Bolsonaro for crimes perpetrated against indigenous peoples since the beginning of his tenure.

"The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples from Brazil (Apib) filed, this Monday (9), a statement before the International Criminal Court (ICC) to denounce Bolsonaro’s government on Genocide… The organization requests the Court’s prosecutor to examine the crimes perpetrated against indigenous peoples by President Jair Bolsonaro since the beginning of his term, in January 2019, with special attention over the period of Covid-19 pandemic," Apib said in a statement.

It is the first time the indigenous peoples directly appeal to the ICC.

"We believe there are acts in progress in Brazil that constitute crimes against humanity, genocide and ecocide. Given the inability of the justice system in Brazil to investigate, prosecute and judge these conducts, we denounce them to the international community, throughout the International Criminal Court," Eloy Terena, legal coordinator of Apib, stated.

On 4 August, the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil’s lower house of parliament, passed a bill facilitating the legalization of occupied land by businesses, including Amazonia territories, despite caustic criticism by green and human rights activists. The lands in question are mostly inhabited by indigenous people, who will have to prove that they occupied the territory before the 1988 Constitution entered in force. Otherwise a loophole in Brazilian legislation, called Marco Temporal ("Time frame"), allows legalization of squatters’ occupied lands.

Indigenous people, which make up about 0.5% of Brazil’s population, hold 13% of its land, mostly in the Amazon region. Indigenous tribes are regarded as the guardians of Brazil’s diverse culture and forests. In the first two years of Bolsonaro's government, deforestation rose by 48%, hitting record rate since 2008, with over 1 million hectares disappearing.