Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Compensation sought for land seizure

Updated at 7:39 am on 22 June 2012

A prosecutor in Brazil has requested the government pay 170 million reais ($US83 million) in damages to an indigenous tribe evicted from its ancestral lands.

Prosecutor Marco Antonio Delfino de Almeida argues that the Guyraroka community must be compensated for moral and material damages.

He says the Guyraroka community will need the money to make their environment sustainable again.

The BBC reports the Guyrarokas are part of the Guarani people in western Brazil.

According to the Public Prosecution Office in Brazil, the tribe began to be expelled from its ancestral lands, near the Paraguay border, in 1927. Their lands were regained only in 2009.

The law suit against the Brazilian Federal Government and Funai - the national indigenous agency - was filed in April but only made public now.

The Guarani are Brazil's largest indigenous minority, with around 46,000 members living in seven states.

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