Two `nun killers' charged

HIRED TO KILL: The two suspected hitmen and the go-between who hired them have been charged with conspiracy to murder

AFP , BRASILIA AND ALTAMIRA
Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005,Page 7

A second suspect sought in the murder of a US-born nun who was an advocate for landless farmers was arrested late Sunday in the Brazilian state of Para, police said. <snip>

Rayfran is the second suspect in the murder of Dorothy Stang, a 74-year-old missionary who spent decades working with the poor in Para state, arrested by Brazilian police. <snip>

The hit men earned US$19,000 dollars in cash for the murder, according to the daily O Estado de Sao Paulo. <snip>

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/02/22/2003224143


<edit:> The rainforest fight goes on
Practices haven't changes along with laws
By MICHAEL ASTOR
The Associated Press

N THE BOA ESPERANCA SETTLEMENT, Brazil - A crude cross of tree branches marks the spot where American nun Dorothy Stang died on a red mud road cutting through dense green jungle. It also marks ground zero of a battle over how the Amazon, the world's largest remaining tropical wilderness, will be developed - or destroyed.

Stang, 73, a spunky, softly spoken nun from Dayton, Ohio, was shot dead on Feb. 12 in a dispute with an influential rancher in the eastern Amazon state of Para, on the frontier of forest and development, where powerful interests collide with the Amazon's poor.

"Before she came here, she was in southern Para, where loggers cut down everything, and she saw that model brought only disgrace for many and improvements for only a few," said Felicio Pontes Jr., a federal prosecutor who often worked with Stang on land issues. "She vowed not to let that happen here."

That vow cost Stang her life - and made her a symbol for rain forest defenders. <snip>

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050220/REPOSITORY/502200404/1037/NEWS04

U$ $s?

That's fucking chump change, I think it was a small lumber industry person that ordered and paid for the hit. If it was a big shot we would've never found out because they would've paid so much $$$ they would've got a real pro instead of some chump like this guy.

John Negroponte. Darn it!

It's hard to believe she came from the country which has also produced _{George W. Bush,} his handlers, and his admirers, such as they are.

Adding article I just discovered:

Nun killed in Brazil an unflinching advocate
Peasants' defender buried in Amazon
Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, February 16, 2005



An American nun who was gunned down in the Brazilian jungle Saturday is being remembered by family members and friends around Northern California for her commitment to social justice and environmental protection.

In the Bay Area and across the globe, the life and death of Sister Dorothy Stang are being compared to legendary Amazonian rubber-tapper-turned- environmentalist Chico Mendes, who was slain for his activism in 1988.

Stang, 74, was laid to rest Tuesday in the frontier town of Anapu, Brazil, her adopted home, three days after she was ambushed en route to a community meeting in a remote region known for land battles and lawlessness.

"They stopped her car, and she got out and they were pointing guns at her, " said Sister Joan Krimm, a lifelong friend. "So she took out her Bible and said, 'This is my weapon,' and started reading to them."

The gunmen fired at least six bullets into her body at close range, according to Brazilian reports.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/02/16/MNGOLBBO611.DTL

Posted on Thu, Feb. 24, 2005





Police, suspects re-enact U.S. nun's death

Associated Press


RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Two men suspected of killing an American nun who worked to defend the rain forest and its poor said she tried to protect herself with a Bible and her shoulder bag before she was gunned down, police said Thursday.

Police, the two suspects and a witness on Thursday re-enacted the Feb. 12 killing of 73-year-old Dorothy Stang. Police said the three versions were re-enacted separately at the crime scene on a muddle jungle road, but were consistent with each other.

"There was no discrepancy," police inspector Walame Machado said in a televised interview after the re-enactment. "This helps to clear things up."

The witness said the gunmen exchanged words with Stang, who read two verses of the Bible to them before she was shot. According to the suspects' versions of the crime, Stang tried to protect herself with her shoulder bag and a Bible.
(snip)

The Catholic Church's Pastoral Land Commission estimates that Para was the site of nearly half the 1,237 land related killings carried in Brazil over the past 30 years.
(snip/...)

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/consumer_news/10985166.htm
(Free registration is required)

A person like Stang should at least act as a standing indictment against any of us who thinks that facing professional opprobrium or public ridicule for one's faith is anything like carrying a cross. A person like Stang should also be a standing indictment to American Christians who believe they are being persecuted by animated sponges, or Kwanza. Sometimes contemplating the number of things that democratic prosperity allows Christians to think of as crucifixion strikes me as an exercise in turning towards the absurd.
(snip/)

http://modeforcaleb.blogspot.com/2005/02/dorothy-stang.html

Amazonian river basin protected by President Lula (published on 25-Feb-2005)

One of the world's most ambitious conservation efforts to date has now begun after two major new protected areas in the Amazon were announced this week by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

He said the decision to protect 3.7 million hectares in the Terra do Meio Ecological Station and the Serra do Pardo National Park had been made in an effort to fight deforestation and land conflicts in the Brazilian state of Para.

"Conservation in the Amazon takes a giant step forward with this decree," chief conservation officer for WWF-US, Carter Roberts stated. "With these two critical pieces in place, we are creating a mosaic of contiguous protected areas, reserves and indigenous territories connecting the savannah ecosystem of the south to the rainforests of the central Amazon."

Totalling an area twice the size of the US state of Massachusetts, the two parks are both located in the state of Para, where American nun Sister Dorothy Stang was murdered just over a week ago because of her outspoken efforts to help landless peasants and wildlife in the area.
(snip/...)

http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=9578&channel=0