Nun Dorothy Stang murderers were convicted last Saturday.  For the accusation, it is an important thing that the point of the crime having been ordered was taken in the Trial, because it can lead to the conviction of the farmers who are accused of being crime mentors.  But death threats and land problems in Pará still worry.

São Paulo - Rayfran das Neves Sales, "Fogoió", and Clodoaldo Batista, "Eduardo", accused of killing the American Nun Dorothy Stang in February, 2005 in Anapu, in Pará State, were convicted on Saturday (10) to prison for 27 and 17 years respectively.  The point sustained by the defense part, that Dorothy's death was a result of a personal disappointment between the Nun and the murder, was rejected for the contradiction in the accused men's reports.

For the accusation, therefore, the greatest victory in the process was that the Court accepted the thesis of the murderers acted under promise of being paid.  This factor, as the Land Pastoral Comission's (CPT) Lawyer, Mr. José Batista Afonso, believes, is fundamental to reinforce the accusation of being crime Mentors against the farmers Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, "Bida", and Reginal Galvão, "Taradão", and also Amair Feijoli da Cunha, "Tato", who would have intermediated the crime.

These three are in prison and must go to Trial until March, next year.  In the beginning of Rayfran and Clodoaldo's judgement, both defense and accusation tried to show Bida and Taradão as innocents, denying the crime ordering and the promise of US$ 21,8 mil (R$ 50 mil) for the murdering.

Relief, but not solution

Rayfran and Clodoaldo's conviction was seen as a relief by social movements and NGOs that had been watching the process and work in Pará with land, environmental and human rights questions.  There is no doubt that the presence of Dorothy's relatives and Jina Hilai, representing the UN General Secretary for Human Rights, of Mario Mamede, Brazilian temporary Special Secretary of Human Rights, of the president of the National Institute of Colonization and Land Reform (Incra), Rolf Hackbart, and of hundreds of rural workers in Anapu during the Trial enforced the expectations for "Justice"; just as long as there is no doubt that the former national and international pressures made Dorothy's murder to be judged in recording time, considering Pará's Justice.

On the other side, the situation of landless workers, of agrarian conflicts, of death threats against social leaders and the agrarian mess in the State have still no solution, if they're not worse since Dorothy's death.

About the cases involving people, 25 organizations gave to the UN reporter a document where they listed six of 18 cases of murders in Pará in 2005.  The crimes, which took place after Dorothy's murder, were against important leaders of social movements and landless workers' communities.

The document also shows the threats faced by social leaders, with no actions taken by the State against the threateners.  "More than 50 people are under death risk in Pará.  Among them, you see some leaders near to Nun Dorothy, in Anapu, where the conflicts for land property intensified again after the Army exit, in September.  It is also to cause indignation the fact that leaders of rural workers from Anapu and witnesses of Dorothy's Case have been accused of crimes that they never practiced" is written in the document.

Agrarian mess

The death of 18 people in Pará this year is a result of the lack of concrete actions from the government to rule the land possession in the State, CPT says.  In February, yet, right after Dorothy's death, Federal Government announced some actions for reorganization, as Conservation Units creation and land regularization, but until now only four areas in Anapu were regularized, as Pedro Aquino, Incra superintendent in Santarém, says.

Verena Glass

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