Brazil evicts miners from Yanomami territory
STORY: Brazil has ousted almost all illegal gold miners from the Amazon territory of the Indigenous Yanomami tribe.
That's according to federal police officials on Tuesday, who say they plan to remove miners from six more reserves this year.
It's all part of President Lula da Silva's plan to crack down on environmental crime and protect indigenous groups.
One of his first acts upon taking office in January was to declare a humanitarian crisis in the Yanomami region, which is the size of Portugal and lies along Brazil's northern border with Venezuela.
The area had been invaded by thousands of gold miners threatening communities with firearms, spreading malaria, polluting rivers and scaring off wild game, which led to children being treated in hospital for malnutrition.
Hundreds of deaths were reported.
This Yanomami leader says there are 180 communities in a health emergency.
To help them, Brazil's armed forces have parachuted in food parcels.
Meanwhile, police said they were not focusing on the arrest of miners but instead seizing the resources of those accused of financing them.
They are also setting up new bases across the Amazon and seeking international help on law enforcement in the region,
including the development of radio-isotope technology to prove the illegal origin of seized gold.
Humberto Friere is the director of the newly-created environment and Amazon department of the federal police.
"We need a structure that is not based on good faith; it has to be on the proof of the illicit origin and a robust legal tracking structure through tax documents. In parallel, the police work will support whenever there is a suspicion that these legal parameters were not followed."
The Brazilian government is also studying new laws to stamp out illegal gold mining, which accounts for roughly half of Brazilian gold the country exports to nations, including Switzerland and Britain.
