Day 286 - 24 Oct 96 - Page 16


     
     1        the scenes that McDonald's do not know about or do not want
     2        to know about or want to pretend they do not know about,
     3        and it just re-emphasises the point that basically
     4        Mr. Cesca only knows what he has been told by Mr. Morganti
     5        in any event.
     6
     7        I will not go into Miss Branford's evidence any further,
     8        because you are going to read it through.  There is
     9        obviously a lot of information in there of relevance,
    10        almost all of which was not challenged by Mr. Rampton.
    11
    12        There is one thing I wanted to say, that you made a
    13        reference to monitoring the eviction of indigenous people
    14        in Gioias State.  That is on page 24 and 25.  Near San
    15        Miguel do Araguais.
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Which day is this?
    18
    19   MR. MORRIS:   This is Sue Branford, day 251.  She said, "I spent
    20        a few days with the remnants of the Avacanaweros tribe.
    21        I subsequently discovered when I went there they had
    22        contracted 'flu.  They had actually been rounded up at the
    23        ranch and were being held virtual prisoners in a shack."
    24        Question, "Where was that?"   Answer, "This was in a ranch
    25        near San Miguel do Araguais owned by the biggest private
    26        bank in Brazil."  This was in 1974, 1975.  So, it seems
    27        that the process of -- well, you can draw your own
    28        conclusions from that.
    29
    30        Can I say something as well about Sue Branford's evidence?
    31        Not only was the information that she provided to the court
    32        about Gioias based on what she had seen, but, in terms of
    33        the impression that you may have got from that evidence, it
    34        is something that we had not discussed with her at all.
    35        Because of the lateness of the information that we got from
    36        McDonald's she had turned up in court and it just suddenly
    37        came out.  So, obviously, in this case we have already said
    38        that the general point that we believe McDonald's witnesses
    39        are all very well, you know, clerked and briefed and drafts
    40        are done of statements, et cetera et cetera.  With most of
    41        our witnesses we have not had time to meet them or just
    42        talk to them on the phone for a short time.  But in this
    43        case, this was an important area of evidence that was
    44        completely spontaneous, and I think it has even greater
    45        weight for that very reason.
    46
    47        So when she says in her evidence that she had seen trucks
    48        labelled 'Bordon' going to the slaughter house at Campo
    49        Grande from Acre, page 12, line 41 of her evidence, again
    50        I emphasise this was the job that she was doing in that 
    51        area as part of her research; part of her expertise and 
    52        analysis of the situation was exactly this, analysing the 
    53        supply routes and the implications of those supply routes
    54        for what was really going on and what was impacting upon
    55        the Amazon.
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can you remind me where Acre is?
    58
    59   MR. MORRIS:   Do you remember there was evidence about Acre
    60        being one stop past Rondonia.

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