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Shamed brazilian Government to accept un help on fires
25 March 1998
Mr Sakharov contacted the Brazilian authorities in November last year regarding the “large-scale fires in Brazil...with a view [to] identifying possible needs for international assistance”.The offer was repeated in December referring to a UN mission that was providing help fighting huge fires in Indonesia, and suggesting that “a mission could be carried out in the second part of January”. Last week the UN again offered its help, referring to its previous messages and saying “as we know, the disaster situation in Brazil becomes more and more serious. In this connection we should like to reiterate our offer of assistance.”
Sarah Tyack, Forest Campaigner for Friends of the Earth International, said:
“We can't understand why the Brazilian authorities have taken so long to respond to the UN's offer of help. Whilst the Government has been dithering huge swathes of forest have been destroyed, threatening the livelihoods of thousands of indigenous people, and adding tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
The Governments of the world must match their words of concern with real action. The world's richest nations - the G8 - must discuss this issue as a matter of urgency when they meet in Birmingham in May, and to make sure that UNEP has the political backing and resources to properly do its job.”
Copies of the UN correspondence is available on request.
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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
Last modified: Jul 2008
