A shocking video depicting infanticide among Amazon tribes has revived a debate in Brazil about whether the practice should be criminalized, or respected as a traditional belief.
The debate was given new vigor by the emergence of the video, which was posted online by the Hakani Campaign, an organization opposed to the practice.
The live burial depicted in the Hakani video is one of several ways infanticide is practiced among indigenous tribes, who also differ in their reasons for the tradition.
In some cases, the children affected are born albino or with birth defects and are either buried alive or abandoned in the forest.
Other tribes believe that sets of twins represent the pairing of good and evil and will kill the baby they think represents the latter.
But the video has been attacked by supporters of indigenous rights, who claim it was illegally obtained by Christian missionaries.
A spokesperson for the National Foundation for Indians (FUNAI) said that evangelical missionaries filmed the video among the recently discovered Suruwaha tribe.
He accused the group of “interfering in the social interactions of people who have chosen to distance themselves from Western culture and preserve their traditions.”
In statements on its Web site, the Hakani organization rejects claims that the video was obtained illegally, but it does acknowledge that the footage was filmed by members of Youth with a Mission, an evangelical organization that calls on its associates “to know God and to make Him known.”
Survival International, a non-governmental organization that defends indigenous rights, cast doubt on whether the burial depicted in the controversial video is even real and has accused the filmmakers of inciting racial hatred against Indians.
The organization says the film, which has been viewed by more than 500,000 people on video-sharing Web site Youtube, is a clear attempt to put pressure on the Brazilian government to pass legislation banning infanticide.
Since 2007, a group of lawmakers has been attempting to adopt legislation that would prosecute individuals who know infanticide is going to happen but fail to report it to authorities.
FUNAI believes the issue is best debated by Indians, anthropologists, human rights organizations and the UN.
The practice of infanticide will eventually die out on its own, said Saulo Ferreira Feitosa, a professor of bioethics at Brasilia University and vice president of the Catholic Indigenous Missionary Committee.
“Of the 250 indigenous tribes in Brazil, we think this practice still exists in only 13,” he said.
“This type of problem will not be solved with punitive legislation. If that were the case we would not have a million underground abortions” in Brazil, where the procedure is illegal, he said.
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and
RSS