Assassinated British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira laid to rest in Brazil – Indigenous group Univaja demands probe into murders – “They tried to tell the world what was happening to the rainforest and its inhabitants”
By Tom Phillips and Andrew Downie
26 June 2022
Niterói (The Guardian) – The British journalist Dom Phillips has been laid to rest in Brazil, exactly three weeks after he was gunned down while journeying through the Amazon with the Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira.
Pereira and Phillips, a longtime Guardian contributor, disappeared while travelling on the Itaquaí River on Sunday, 5 June 2022.
Their killings have sparked international outrage and highlighted the historic assault on Indigenous communities and the environment that has unfolded under Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro.
The men’s bodies were recovered from the rainforest on 15 June, after a local fisherman confessed to their murders, and returned to their families on Thursday.
Scores of mourners gathered at a cemetery in Niterói, a city near Rio de Janeiro, on Sunday to pay their respects to Phillips, 57, who had spent the past 15 years reporting on his adoptive South American home.
“He was killed because he tried to tell the world what was happening to the rainforest and its inhabitants,” his sister, Sian Phillips, told reporters and TV cameras gathered outside the chapel in which his coffin was laid, draped with the Brazilian and UK flags.
“His mission clashed with the interests of individuals who are determined to exploit the Amazon rainforest regardless of the destructive impact of their illegal activities.”
She said the family and friends of the murdered journalist were “committed to continue that work even in this time of tragedy”.
“The story must be told,” she added, to applause.
Phillips’ wife, Alessandra Sampaio, paid tribute to the Indigenous people who her husband had been writing about when he was killed, and who spearheaded the 10-day search for the two men. [more]
Murdered British journalist Dom Phillips laid to rest in Brazil
Bruno Pereira buried in his home state after ceremony led by Indigenous tribes
By Andrew Downie
24 June 2022
São Paulo (The Guardian) – The murdered Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira has been buried in his home state of Pernambuco in Brazil after a small ceremony attended by family members and local tribes.
Dozens of Indigenous people from the Xukuru tribe paraded around his coffin chanting farewell rituals to the beat of their percussion instruments on Friday.
Topless and wearing headdresses made of palm fronds, they saluted a man who had spent much of his life working with isolated communities in remote parts of the Amazon rainforest.
“We will continue our fight without them,” one of the tribe’s leaders said in a short speech in front of the coffin and alongside Pereira’s wife, Beatriz Matos.
Pereira’s coffin was draped with flags of Pernambuco and his football team, Sport Recife.
The 41-year-old father of three died on 5 June when he and the British journalist Dom Phillips were shot dead on the Itaquaí River in the far west of Brazil.
Phillips was writing a book about sustainable development in the Amazon and the two men were returning from a reporting trip when local fishers allegedly attacked their boat. Shots were exchanged and Pereira was hit three times, and Phillips once.
Three men are in custody and more are wanted by police for allegedly helping to dispose of the bodies.
Although authorities initially said the killers acted alone, the officer in charge of the inquiry is now rolling back that hypothesis. “It’s possible that there is an intellectual author behind this,” said Eduardo Fonte. “The investigation is ongoing. We are looking at everything and we won’t leave any stone unturned. We’ll find out what happened, and what didn’t happen.”
Loggers, prospectors, ranchers and drug traffickers are all encroaching on Indigenous land in the remote Javari Valley, local groups say, and hunters and fishers are known to catch protected species of animal and fish. The locals claim organised crime groups active in the area could have been involved in the killings.
Pereira was working with an Indigenous organisation called Univaja. He helped tribespeople who lived in the Javari Valley to delineate their land and protect it from invaders.
Pereira had previously worked with Funai, the Brazilian government’s Indigenous foundation. He was removed from his post in 2019 after leading a successful operation to destroy an illegal mining operation on Indigenous land. [more]
Bruno Pereira buried in his home state after ceremony led by Indigenous tribes
Brazilian Indigenous group Univaja demands probe into murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira
By Fernanda Canofre
21 June 2022
(Global Voices) – Ten days after British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were reported missing on June 5 while doing investigative and reporting work in the Javari Valley, a remote corner of the Brazilian Amazon, the Brazilian Federal Police confirmed that a man arrested during the investigation confessed to the murders of both men and indicated the place where the bodies were found.
Amarildo Oliveira da Costa, known as “Pelado” (a nickname that directly translates to naked in Portuguese), a fisherman who lives in the region, was arrested with his brother, Oseney da Costa Oliveira, known as Dos Santos, in relation to the case. Pelado told the police he helped to bury the bodies of both men, but another person was responsible for killing them.
According to the investigation conducted by the Civil Police in the Amazonas state, the motivation for the killings is likely due to the fact that Pereira was “getting in the way” of Pelado’s business, with reports of illegal fishing within the Indigenous territory, as reported by Agência Pública.
While the Federal Police dismissed suggestions that the killings were carried out upon orders from organized crime, the Indigenous People Union of the Javari Valley, Univaja, the main Indigenous entity in the region, insists that a probe must continue to answer all the questions raised in the case.
The Indigenous group published a statement claiming the investigation is not taking into consideration the reports they sent to authorities in late 2021.
The cruelty employed in the practice of the crime shows that both Pereira and Phillips were in the tracks of a powerful criminal organization that tried to hide their trails at every cost during the investigation (…) We demand the continuation and deepening of the investigations.
According to Univaja, the material submitted shows the existence of “an organized criminal group acting in constant invasions to the Indigenous Land of Javari Valley,” with professional hunters and fishermen linked to narcos. At least two of the three locals arrested for the killings of Phillips and Pereira were listed as associates of this criminal group in the previous Univaja report sent to authorities.
The reports included the names of invaders who are the members of the criminal group, how they operate, and what kind of transportation they use.
As of June 19, three people had been arrested for involvement in the murders and the Federal Police said it had five other suspects under investigation, reported the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.
In a previous statement, Univaja also stated that the “case is not over yet” and qualified the murders as a political crime.
Brazilian journalist André Trigueiro questioned:
They trusted the Indigenous people to guide the searches for Dom and Bruno, but undermine the complaints made by the same Indigenous people when suddenly closing the investigations on eventual intellectual authors or criminal organizations involvement. How is that, Federal Police?
Phillips and Pereira bonded over their shared love for the rainforest and had traveled together through the region before, as reported by The Guardian, where Phillips was a frequent contributor. This time, he was there to research for a book he was writing, with Pereira once again as his guide.
After conducting interviews in Atalaia do Norte in Amazonas state on June 5, they took a two-hour boat trip along the Itaquaí river which turned into a mystery. On June 15, their deaths were confirmed by Brazilian authorities. [more]
Brazilian Indigenous group Univaja demands probe into murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira
