Brasilia - Brazilian federal police on Tuesday occupied the indigenous reservation of Raposa/Serra do Sol, in the Amazonian state of Roraima, after 10 indigenous people were shot in an attack a day earlier. The incident happened as the Brazilian supreme court was reviewing a government decision to expel non-indigenous people from the reservation.
The authorities said three of the wounded were in serious condition and had to be taken to hospitals in the state capital, Boa Vista.
The attack occurred when a group of armed men in the service of estate owner Paulo Cesar Quartiero, who accuses the indigenous people of invading his land to build their homes, sought to get the natives off the landowner's property.
Accounts diverged, however, as to how they tried to evict the trespassers.
"They invaded the estate. My men went there to ask them to leave, but they were met with arrows. There was a clash, and some people were injured," Quartiero said.
One of the representatives of the Macuxi nation, Joao Ribeiro, however, said Quartiero's men did not seek to negotiate and shot at the indigenous people as they arrived.
"Nobody realized they had arrived. It was all very fast, and they were shooting even as they arrived," Ribeiro said.
Leaders of the indigenous community have expressed impatience over the supreme court decision and said they intended to begin expelling non-indigenous people on their own.
"We will enforce the law with our own hands. We will fight to the last man," said Vanildo Silva, also of the Macuxi nation.
The conflict is based on the reluctance of rice producers on the Raposa/Serra do Sol reserve to leave the area, despite a decree signed by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2005, which gave native-Brazilian people 1.7 million hectares.
Last month, a police operation to push out non-indigenous people had to be cancelled due to a preliminary decision by the supreme court.
Roraima Governor Jose de Anchieta Filho said a final court decision will be made "within the next 15 or 20 days."
The governor is against granting indigenous people land covering over 46 per cent of Roraima.
