AFP/Brasilia

Violence against indigenous Brazilians more than tripled between 2011 and 2012, often due to land feuds, a new report said.

A total of 1,276 natives were the target of attacks last year, compared with 378 in 2011, the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) said in its annual survey.

The report focused on death threats, homicides, assassination attempts, racism and sexual abuse.

Some 60 indigenous people were murdered in Brazil last year, compared to 51 the previous year, the report said. More than half of the murders, 37, occurred in the central state of Mato Grosso do Sul, scene of fierce land disputes, it added.

The CIMI also warned that suicides were “causing a silent genocide in Mato Grosso do Sul”, with nine victims among ethnic Guarani-Kaiowa in 2012. A total of 23 suicides among indigenous Brazilians were reported nationwide.

CIMI, which is linked to the Catholic Church, blamed the government for the violence.

“President Dilma Rousseff’s government has bowed to pressure from the rural elite and has made little progress in demarcating ancestral lands,” CIMI said.

One percent of the Brazilian population controls 46% of the country’s cultivated land.

CIMI noted that of 1,045 indigenous territories throughout Brazil, 293 are still under review and in 339 cases, no action has been taken.

“Life for indigenous peoples is linked to land. The government urgently needs to repay this historic debt,” said CIMI executive director Cleber Buzatto.

In April, leaders of 121 native tribes occupied the Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia in protest and accused Rousseff of siding with white ranchers.

Earlier this month, indigenous peoples embroiled in land feuds with white farmers in Mato Grosso do Sul and others opposed to construction of the Belo Monte dam in the Amazon returned to Brasilia to air their grievances.

Rousseff has said her government will respect any decision made by judicial authorities on the land dispute, but she favours negotiations “to prevent conflicts, deaths and injuries.”

Indigenous communities affected by construction of the Belo Monte dam say it will harm their way of life.

Environmentalists have also warned of deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions and irreparable damage to the ecosystem. Built at a cost of $13bn, Belo Monte is expected to flood an area of 500 square kilometers along the Xingu River, displacing 16,000 people, according to the government.