Brazil - tribal struggles

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Observer Magazine, Nov 1999

Simon Rawles reports on the Brazilian children driven to suicide by the persecution of their ancient tribe.

They'd planned it for weeks. Elaine Perito Pedro would finish her shift at a local farm, where she was a maid, hang up her apron and surreptitiously make her way to the outhouse, before walking the long red dust-track home to her village. Every day she'd follow the same routine: after work - for which the farmer paid her a kilogram...
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Observer Magazine, Nov 1999

Simon Rawles reports on the Brazilian children driven to suicide by the persecution of their ancient tribe.

They'd planned it for weeks. Elaine Perito Pedro would finish her shift at a local farm, where she was a maid, hang up her apron and surreptitiously make her way to the outhouse, before walking the long red dust-track home to her village. Every day she'd follow the same routine: after work - for which the farmer paid her a kilogram of meat a week - she'd sneak into the outhouse and top up an empty Coke bottle with Nortox, a powerful insecticide. One evening in May, when at last her bottle was full, 13-year-old Elaine, her newly wed, 16-year-old husband Luiz Aquino Concianza, and another young man from her Brazilian tribe, mixed the Nortox with rum, and poisoned themselves to death.

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