No. 129

Uncontacted Amazonian village spotted from the air

Pictures have been released of a tiny village inhabited by an uncontacted tribe living in isolation in the Brazilian Amazon.

The non-government group which released the images has warned the tribe are threatened by the return of illegal gold miners on their territory.

Survival International said the village - a handful of huts lining a tiny clearing in the rainforest - was inhabited by members of the Yanomami tribe.

"These new pictures emphasise how important the territory is in protecting the Yanomami from goldminers who devastated the tribe in the 1980s," it said in a statement.

Illegal goldmining camps continue to operate just 15 kilometres from Yanomami, according to Survival.

Straddling the northern Brazilian states of Amazonas and Roraima, along the border with Venezuela, the Yanomani territory was officially created in 1992.

The Yanomami suffered years of oppression at the hands of gold miners.

Violence and disease saw their population fall by 20 per cent in just seven years.

With gold prices soaring on the international markets, the gold miners are back in the region.

"Many tribal peoples, including the uncontacted Yanomami, are still threatened by the illegal occupation of their land, so we can't afford to give up the fight," Survival's head Stephen Corry said.

"The very existence of uncontacted Yanomami, however, proves that persistent campaigning pays off."

Read more |  ABC News, Australia, 23.11.11

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