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WORLD NEWS Monday 5 SepteMber 2022

Pakistan's hope as lake fills: Flood Indigenous ‘forest guardians’

villages to save a city reported slain in Brazil

By ZARAR KHAN
Associated Press
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Paki-
stani engineers cut into an
embankment for one of
the country's largest lakes
on Sunday to release rising
waters in the hopes of sav-
ing a nearby city and town
from flooding as officials
predicted more monsoon
rain was on the way for the
country's already devastat-
ed south.
While officials hope the cut Local residents cross a portion of road destroyed by floodwaters
in the sides of Lake Man- in Kalam Valley in northern Pakistan, Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022. Indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara from the Guajajara ethnic
char will protect about half Associated Press group shows her hands painted in red symbolizing blood, during
a million people who live in a protest against Violence, illegal logging, mining and ranching,
the city of Sehwan and the With meteorologists pre- Asia. and to demand government protection for their reserves, one
day before the celebration of "Amazon Day," in Sao Paulo,
town of Bhan Saeedabad, dicting more rain in the In its latest report, Pakistan's Brazil, Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022.
villages that are home to coming days, including National Disaster Man- Associated Press
150,000 people are in the around Sindh's Lake Man- agement Authority put
path of the diverted wa- char, and its level already the death toll since mid- RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Two members of the Brazilian In-
ters. The hometown of rising, authorities ordered June — when monsoon digenous group known for its forest guardians who com-
Sindh province's chief min- that water be released from rains started weeks earlier bat illegal deforestation have been killed according to
ister was among the affect- it. Sindh's chief minister, Mu- than is typical — at 1,314, the Indigenist Missionary Council, a nonprofit that moni-
ed villages, whose residents rad Ali Shah, made the as more fatalities were re- tors violence against native peoples.Forest guard Janildo
were warned to evacuate call even though his own ported from flood-affected Oliveira Guajajara was killed with multiple gunshots from
ahead of time, according village could be flooded, areas of Sindh, Khyber Pak- behind, while another Guajajara man who was shot in
to the provincial informa- said Sharjil Inam Memon, htunkhwa and Baluchistan the Saturday morning attack survived and is in a health
tion minister. the provincial information provinces. The report said unit, the nonprofit's division in Maranhao state said in a
More than 1,300 people minister. The government 458 children were among statement posted on Instagram. In a separate municipal-
have died and millions have helped residents of the vil- the dead. ity of Maranhao, Jael Carlos Miranda Guajajara was run
lost their homes in flooding lages in the waters' path to Rescue operations contin- over by an unspecified vehicle the same morning, and
caused by unusually heavy evacuate ahead of time, ued Sunday with troops and members of his group suspect it was a targeted killing, the
monsoon rains in Pakistan said Memon. volunteers using helicop- statement said.
this year that many experts The hope was that the wa- ters and boats to get peo- The Guajajara live within the Arariboia Indigenous Terri-
have blamed on climate ter, once released, would ple stranded out of flooded tory in Maranhao and patrol their lands to expel invaders.
change. In response to flow into the nearby Indus areas to relief camps, the That has often put them in the crosshairs: F ive were slain
the unfolding disaster, U.N. River, but the lake's level authority said. Tens of thou- in a five-month period in 2019-2020.
Secretary-General Antonio continued to rise even after sands of people are al- Neither the federal government's indigenous affairs agen-
Guterres last week called the cut was made, accord- ready living in such camps, cy nor the Federal Police responded to Associated Press
on the world to stop "sleep- ing to Fariduddin Mustafa, and thousands more have emails requesting comment.
walking" through the crisis. administrator for Jamshoro taken shelter on roadsides At a demonstration in Sao Paulo on Sunday, a small group
He plans to visit flood-hit ar- district, where the affected on higher ground. of Indigenous people from several tribes were attending
eas on Sept. 9. villages are located. Au- Hira Ikram, a physician at a previously scheduled protest against violence, illegal
Several countries have thorities have also warned a camp established by logging, mining and ranching.
flown in supplies, but the residents of neighboring Britain's Islamic Mission in Sônia Guajajara, a tribe member and executive coordi-
Pakistani government has Dadu district that they Sukkur charity, said many nator of the Association of the Indigenous Peoples of Bra-
pleaded for even more might be at risk of more people had scabies, gas- zil, told reporters she needed more details before com-
help, faced with the enor- flooding in coming days. trointestinal infections and menting on the reports.
mous task of feeding and While the release valve fevers. "With over 400 (chil- "We are here to say: enough with this violence, enough
housing those affected, was created in one area, dren) dead they make up with genocide against our people and our territory," she
as well as protecting them army engineers worked one third of overall death said.
from waterborne diseases. elsewhere to reinforce the toll. Now they are at even The Missionary Council's annual report on violence against
While floods have touched banks of Lake Manchar, greater risk of water borne Indigenous people, released last month, reported that
much of the country, Sindh which is the largest natural diseases, UNICEF and oth- 176 Indigenous people were killed in 2021, down slightly
province has been the freshwater lake in Pakistan er global agencies should from the prior year but well above the average from the
most affected. and one of the largest in help," he tweeted.q preceding five years, of 123.q