S.O.S CHIEF RAONI IN DANGER : THE BACKGROUND OF A SCANDALOUS TOUR

Palais de l'Elysée, 16th of May 2019, after their meeting with President Macron, from left to right: Kaiulu Rodarte Kamaiurá, Jean-Pierre Dutilleux, Raoni Metuktire, Bemoro Metuktire and Tapi Yawalapiti © John Van Hasselt

Urgent message from Chief Megaron to   about the current tour of Europe
   by his uncle, Chief Raoni

Colider, Mato Grosso, Brazil, Friday 17 May 2019

 

I am very concerned about my uncle Raoni's trip through the countries of Europe.
His first campaign with Sting was to demarcate the indigenous land Mekragnoti, and the Brazilian government was aware of the campaign and the FUNAI was too.

 

" This current trip was organized by Jean Pierre, and is only for himself. He did not disclose the purpose of this campaign. We have only recently learned about the creation of the Xingu Institute and what resources would be collected as part of the Xingu Institute campaign.
We are worried about the image and the name of Chief Raoni. He is over 80 years old and we, his nephews, are worried about him, and his grandson Beptuk is also very worried about his grandfather.

 

Here is my message to Jean Pierre [Dutilleux]:

 

" This current trip was organized by Jean Pierre, and is only for himself. He did not disclose the purpose of this campaign. We have only recently learned about the creation of the Xingu Institute and what resources would be collected as part of the Xingu Institute campaign.
We are worried about the image and the name of Chief Raoni. He is over 80 years old and we, his nephews, are worried about him, and his grandson Beptuk is also very worried about his grandfather.

 

Jean Pierre, you did not present with us the proposal to create the Xingu Institute, you did not explain what resource collected during the campaign would go to the Xingu Institute and what resources would be used from the Xingu Indigenous Park. Most of the local leaders did not know about it.

Also, Jean Pierre, the speech of Chief Raoni is not translated correctly. We need you to send a plane ticket for a translator, either Bepo Metuktire or Patxon Metuktire.
Chief Raoni spoke of the land Kapot-Nhinore, which has not been translated in the media for the European public.

The public need to know what Chief Raoni is about, what he wants to convey and what he expects from European citizens, and what support he is asking from the European citizens. Jean-Pierre, please send me a plane ticket so that I can help my uncle Raoni. »

In 1989, Chief Raoni and Sting travelled around the world to raise the funds needed to demarcate an immense land native to link with other already protected lands. The idea of this tour came from the filmmaker Jean-Pierre Dutilleux, who met Chief Raoni in 1973, and by the late 1980s already had the sulphurous reputation of profiteer, so much so that Sting quickly departed from the Rainforest Foundation (Dutilleux retained the French branch of the Foundation, theAssociation Forêt Vierge, detached from the parent company since 1990). The Rainforest Foundation fundraised again with Sting and demarcated the Mekragnotire land in 1994. No doubt fustrated by the scandals caused by Dutilleux around the name of Raoni, Sting and the Rainforest Foundation decided to stop working with Kayapo once their promise was fulfilled. The singer, however, kept a sincere affection for the indigenous chief.

2000 -2001: Chirac rejects the autocratic handling of the "Raoni Institute" project by Dutilleux

In 2000, Chief Raoni returned to France through Jean-Pierre Dutilleux and his Association for the Virgin Forest (AFV). Without ambition and without a project, the AFV was put on standby at the beginning of 1990, until Jean-Pierre Dutilleux had an idea: to establish a permanent mission in one of the newly demarcated territories of Xingu, including a school, a dispensary, a health centre, telecommunications, and especially a shelter for wealthy tourists. Chief Raoni was received by the president Jacques Chirac, who then went on television alongside Dutilleux. The latter called for donations from the public, but above all sought the necessary funds from the French State and other European countries (in particular Switzerland and Belgium).

The following year, GRET (Groupe de Recherche et d'Echange Technologique), was commissioned by the Presidency of the Republic, to report on the feasibility of the project. Although Jean-Pierre Dutilleux imposed his presence on the publicly funded team of experts, the report of the study of feasibility of the Raoni Institute recommended to decrease considerably the initial ambitions, including the fact that the establishment of constructions allowing a way of life in the Western middle of the forest would not be viable because of supply costs by helicopter. The French State thus refused to endorse the draft by Jean-Pierre Dutilleux, and made a counter-proposal fifteen times less expensive, based on the development of local agriculture and monitoring demarcated territories. The report was given to Chief Raoni in 2001 by Jacques Chirac in front of the journalists.

Chief Raoni is received by President Chirac in 2000, Jean-Pierre Dutilleux is on the left of the photo © Gert-Peter Bruch

2002, Chief Raoni : " I'm going to kill Jean Pierre ! »

The creation of the " Raoni Institute " , occured a few months later, still in 2001. Jean-Pierre Dutilleux was not linked to the creation of the organization, which is still headed today by the great Amazonian leader. Dutch Kayapo partners will lay the groundwork, operational and administrative. What happened? Dutilleux defended himself for having found the funds needed to carry out the project he was carrying out for Chief Raoni, arguing that all his potential supporters would have withdrawn following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Still, Chief Raoni was very angry, and raised a complaint against him in Brazil as early as 2003 so that all funds raised by Dutilleux in his name were to be passed directly to the Kayapo people.

In fact, Dutilleux seeing his big project relocated, tried to recycle it to another tribe in the Xingu region, renaming it to " Xingu Institute" . Very angry, Chief Raoni then declared to his friend Aritana, the leader of the Yawalapiti people, "I'm going to kill Jean-Pierre!". Then began a new crossing of the desert for Dutilleux, who did not see Chief Raoni for the next 7 years.

Presentation of the Xingu Institute    in 2002

2010, Dutilleux claims   funds to create a Raoni Institute that has existed for 9 years  

Others would have low profile, but Dutilleux does not ever give up.   He wants to relaunch the project, which he abusively calls "the old   Raoni's dream".   In 2009, taking advantage of the financial difficulties of   Raoni Institut in Brazil, he manages to reconnect with Chief Raoni and to   convince the Kayapo to go back to Europe with the old chief. At the   same time Sting, also called for help by the Kayapo, is about to   to make his big return to the chief. He even calls a press conference   3 weeks after the return of Dutilleux, against the Belo Monte dam.   But after Chief Raoni agreed to follow Dutilleux in Europe, Sting   withdrew.

Chief Raoni arrives again in France in 2010.   Its goal is to fight against the Belo Monte Dam and also to strengthen the organization in Brazil by finding   funds to develop new projects or strengthen those which are on   course. There is amazement when Dutilleux speaks again during this tour   of "  creating a Raoni Institute  " whileChief Raoni does not receive   correct translation of his remarks . Who speaks Portuguese in the assistance of the public meetings, the confusion is total. The Instituto Raoni already exists, it is funded by foreign NGOs, and leads with difficulty the necessary actions of surveillance of the territory,   development of the local economy, but also advocates   Brazilian puoliticians to assert the rights of the indigenous peoples(Conservation International, EDF - Environmental Defense Fund), which become even more complicated to enforce with the massive development of   agribusiness.

But of course, it's not the general public that has to   provide the millions. Dutilleux obtains agreements in principle from the Chirac Foundation and from the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation , to help him find donors. It asks the two organizations to create a fund dedicated to support "the realization of the Raoni Institute". Does nothing cause prudence among the parcipitants?

2011, Dutilleux lures the   chief and tries to monetize his silence on the dam to finance his large project.

Never mind!   Dutilleux brings back Chief Raoni the following year, in September 2011, lured by promises of funding for the demarcation of the last piece of territory not yet protected for his people, Kapot-Nhinore, where the bodies of his parents lie. Fantastic calls for financial support are launched, the sum of 300 000 euros is advanced to the cookie cutter. In fact, Dutilleux knows very well that money will not solve anything, the process of   demarcation , strictly framed in Brazil and passing through five   steps, has to start totally again. In addition, farmers have invaded the   territory concerned. It will therefore have to go through very long actions   to hope to see them go. If Dutilleux bets his world, it's   that he was promised huge support for his great   Raoni Institute project by a close friend of Henri Proglio , patron of EDF(which supports   dams in the Brazilian Amazon). Dutilleux wants to double-up;   he turns to both the Ministry of Development and Cooperation,   and to the business community.

Extract from an article published in Metro, the day of the arrival of Chief Raoni in France, September 2011.

On his arrival at Charles de Gaulle airport, Chief   Raoni pushes back his support committee to give him the first 100,000   signatures of his petition against the   Belo Monte dam , and a journalist who asks him about the dam. After a crazy chase, he ended up accepting the records of his petition. The next day, the Metro newspaper headline is "The Strange silence of Raoni".   Dutilleux seems to have temporarily convinced the chief and one of his companions, Bemoro Metuktire, to follow his plan. Only there is a problem he did not foresee: opposition to the Belo Monte dam has grown enormously in France and around the world, following the webcast, in June 2011, of a famous diverted photo of Chief   Raoni Weeping in a traditional way. The success in France of   ensuing petition creates an embarrassing movement for the authorities because companies with French public capital   participate in the gigantic Brazilian project . In fact, the theme   "Belo Monte" becomes taboo during this campaign, which is presented to the media as a "medical trip", andChief Raoni is prevented   from speaking about the dam by Dutilleux . Yet he is   willing to meet the signatories of his petition and to participate in a   trip to the UN in Geneva to denounce Belo Monte. Dutilleux does everything to prevent the chief from being present, but activists manage to prise Raoni and his two companions from his claws. In Geneva, those accompanying the chief declare being "  held hostage  " by Dutilleux since the beginning of the trip. The ministry is fading, companies withdraw their support. The project of Dutilleux is drowned again. It is brought up again by Chief Raoni by way of release a few months later and denounced in a Brazilian documentary.

2016 - 2017 the carbon promoters move Chief Raoni from Planet Amazon

Since 2012, Planète Amazonewas with   dignity and respect the voice of Chief Raoni in the whole world, realized three   European tours for him and his participation in many events and   international organizations, COP21, where the Alliance des Gardiens de Mère Nature was launched. Because of his age, Planet   Amazone decides at the end of 2015, to no longer organize tours for Chief   Raoni. The last collaboration dates back to the holding of theGrande Assemblée de l'Alliance à Brasília, in October 2017, where Amazon Planet gathered 200 indigenous and environmental leaders from around the world, thanks to the support ofNicolas Hulot, Pierre Richard, Bernard Lavilliers, Paul Watson et Hugues Aufray. Following this, dissatisfied with his management and his   inability to protect Chief Raoni, Planet Amazon announced to its   donors to stop all collaboration with the Raoni Institute but   to keep their affection and their trust in the old chief. At the same time, the Alliance   denouncedcarbon credits and the Raoni Institute being funded by some institutions supporting them, Chief Raoni is strongly urged to move away from Planet Amazon and its   founder,Gert-Peter Bruch, at the very moment when Dutilleux maneuvers behind the scenes to prepare his return.   Action, concerted? Since then, Planet Amazon is kept away from the chief and   the Alliance has not heard from him. Is it a mere coincidence if   the main support of Jean-Pierre Dutilleux's resounding comeback, business man Robert Dardanne, is a "carbon credit operator" in Brazil, and also in Guyana, or its society Voltalia built a hydroelectric dam?

2019, Dutilleux writes   the 88-year-old Chief Raoni's epitaph with a book and a scandalous tour.  

2019, seven and a half years later, so here is Chief   Raoni in France with Dutilleux, for the sixth time. How many manipulations   and conspiracies regularly denounced by Planet Amazon since 2016, in   indifference, to finally achieve, with the support of the Embassy of France to Brazil, to organize this "last trip" which smells of scandal. "Raoni, my last voyage", that's the title of the new book of   Dutilleux at Flammarion, based more than two-thirds on "Raoni, Memoirs of an Indian Chief" (Le Rocher, 2010), in which he puts regularly in the mouth of the chief his own memories to enhance himself. The publisher, who did not hesitate to participate in a very doubtful summons in interlocutory proceedings   by Dutilleux in his name and that of Chief Raoni against Planet   Amazon , to remove from the Internet avideo where Raoni   denounced promoting the book as "The testament of Raoni". Dutilleux has been unsuccessful,   once the prosecutor,   Brazilian Felicio Pontes, was able to testify that the chief had no   knowledge of this legal action and felt sad. This   prosecutor, who has carried out more than 20 legal proceedings against the   Belo Monte, also reported the chief's concern when he told him   that the law firm with which Dutilleux claimed to represent him, Simmons & Simmons, defended interests of   NordGold (Montagne d'Or) or EDF.

From left to right, Patxon    Metuktire, administrator of FUNAI at Colider (Mato Grosso),    Chief Raoni Metuktire, Chief Megaron Txucarramãe.
Image    extracted from the video of February 13, 2017, denouncing Jean-Pierre    Dutilleux

Chief Raoni, illiterate and living in the depths of   the Amazon, deprived of permanent legal assistance and advisers to the   high stakes, is now about 88 years old. These are the recent   serious manipulation of Dutilleux against him, with the complicity of the   Kayapo representative Bemoro Metuktire dreaming of succeeding him, who revealed his vulnerability,   that of a weakened man. In a video dated February 2017, the grandson   of the chief, Patxon Metuktire, director of FUNAI Colider, denounced Dutilleux   for "  crime of abuse of weakness  ".

Fanciful rescue of   the "Xingu Grand Reserve" with bamboo walls and the Yves Foundation   Rock

This tour, pompously named" Amazon Rainforest Europe Tour », uses the usual springs of   Dutilleux. Again, Raoni, still badly advised and protected by his   Institute, was baited by a promise to raise funds to demarcate the   Kapot-Nhinore land. Dutilleux had promised him that he would travel with 3   Kayapos, including his right arm and nephew Megaron Txucarramãe and his grandson Patxon, official translator and   Legal Assistant. Dutilleux dismissed them both at the last minute,   replacing them with young people from other peoples, inexperienced in international traveling   and thus malleable. Finally,the Virgin Forest Association asks one   million euros not for the territory of Kapot-Nhinore but for the   very vague purpose to "  save the great reserve of Xingu  " . We   learned in the press, so-called from the mouth of Chief Raoni himself. (Dubious translations are   a recurrence of trips organized by Dutilleux ), which he   said would be to restore the boundaries of the indigenous territories of the region,   partly covered by wild vegetation, with "Plant walls made from   bamboo " ! This wacky proposal, inspired by Jacques Rocher (Honorary President of the Fondation Yves Rocher, who received Chief Raoni for a conference on May 30 at the   Gacilly ) can in no way be considered as a the legal demarcation of indigenous land in Brazil, in the current state of the legislation. Demarcation involves clearing throughout a native territory a continuous driveway 6 meters wide, crossed with terminals with panels, recalling the laws that punish any intruder, point at the line !

Ad      of the public event at the Gacilly on May 30, 2019, organized by the Foundation      Yves Rocher

As for the so-called "great reserve of the Xingu  " of which Dutilleux speaks, it has no legal recognition and does not exist   as such. If he talks about an Indigenous Park of   Xingu , Chief Raoni and his people do not live there. If he wants   talk about the 7 distinct indigenous territories (Bau, Kayapo, Menkragnoti, Parana,   Capoto / Jarina, Wawi, and Xingu Indigenous Park) glued to each other at   the States of Mato Grosso and Para, he has the obligation to consult   and obtain the agreement of the 19 peoples of which they are composed and of the Brazilian government, which he obviously did not do before making this project public, as a good neocolonialist who respects himself. By failing to do so, Dutilleux and Virgin Forest violate the Convention 169 of   IOT , ratified by Brazil, which guarantees Aboriginal peoples prior, free and informed consultation.

This map shows the boundaries of indigenous lands constituting a continuous whole straddling the states of Mato Grosso and Pará, Brazil. This set does not constitute a single entity legally recognized or commonly identified as "Xingu's great reserve", as affirmed by the Virgin Forest Association, where 19 different peoples and 6 subgroups of Kayapo live.

1 million euros for Raoni,   and 15 million euros to bring the Indians out of the zoo.

But more seriously, behind the dubious bait, Dutilleux returns to the charge and   seeks to raise 15 million euros , ie 15 times more than   what he promises to Raoni and those who accompany them, for his everlasting   great project, which he calls again "Xingu Institute  ". Dutilleux has once again changed its funding formula and its   partners, but the idea is always the same. The ramifications of his network   go this time to the French authorities via a promoter of   hydroelectric dams and carbon credits, management clubs,   companies in Switzerland and Luxembourg, the Yves Rocher Foundation, and always   the Principality of Monaco.

It is by seduction that Dutilleux will guide, as always,   Chief Raoni towards these various interlocutors, without guard, without appropriate legal protection and without proper translation. He will be able to count on the blind support of the faithful, Patrick Mahé, former director of Paris Match close to Jean-Marie Le Pen, Henri de Bontin, adviser in fortune and supporter of Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (whom he dreams to present to the chief), whose brother is a close friend of Prince Albert II of Monaco and whose sister filed without the agreement of   the person concerned the name "  Raoni  " at the INPI for the benefit of   AFV, Nathalie Gaillard, gallerist and president of the AFV, Alexandre Bouchet, producer and director at Yemaya (who films ally   Raoni's actions and gestures during his trip for a television project)   or the producer Chris Breakman.

Chief Raoni with    the leadership team of the Association for the Virgin Forest.
   left to right, Patrick Mahé, Jean-Pierre Dutilleux, Chief    Raoni,
Nathalie Gaillard (current president), Bernard    Laine.

And, tragically, Dutilleux can count on the very  ambitious 43-year-old Bemoro Metuktire, representing Kayapo, who has been dreaming for  years to take the place of Chief Raoni and does not hesitate to shamelessly handle  the most respected leader of his own people. This is also the sole accompanying Kayapo with Raoni in this trip, while Dutilleux had guaranteed three, especially so that the elderly leader could benefit correct translation and legal protection. According to two witnesses, Kayapos only learned at the last minute that Dutilleux allowed Bemoro Metuktire to accompany Raoni in this trip and that he would campaign for a "Xingu Institute  " and not for their Raoni Institute. They then did everything to dissuade the chief from taking the plane, but Bemoro had made the bait for Dutilleux and the chief, hoping to bring back some profit for his people, left against everyone's advice.

Bemoro Metuktire accompanied    Raoni, shaking hands with François de Rugy, Minister of Ecology    and the solidarity transition, 13 May 2019.

Since then, Bemoro has helped to block Chief   Raoni and anyone who can threaten his projects. The relatives of the chief   that he does not inform, follow the tour on the internet. The three leaders of the Munduruku people   fighting against large dams (on the occasion of the International Congress of   Hydroelectricity), were in Paris on the same dates as Chief   Raoni,   but have never received a reply to the invitation to join them that they   had passed on to him through Bemoro. When they came across   him by chance in front of the Eiffel tower, he fled. Megaron   Txucarramãe, nephew of Raoni, long named as his successor, spoke truly when he explained in a video denunciation that Dutilleux had the dangerous faculty of creating conflicts between natives. And he did so at the moment when a sacred union is needed to deal with the threat of Bolsonaro.

.

Bemoro Metuktire taking the      leaked, after falling face to face with 3 Munduruku leaders at Trocadero,    May 15, 2019.

The current operation will have the merit, if it succeeds, of   whitewashing the image of sulfurous Jean-Pierre Dutilleux, yet many times   denounced by Chief Raoni and his people and by many others, including ourselves, who have had to undergo his manipulations since the beginning of the existence of Planet Amazon. If this company fails, the image of Chief Raoni will have been   permanently soiled, which will undoubtedly discredit the whole cause.   Jair Bolsonaro and all gravediggers in the Amazon are   already rubbing their hands. In an archive image that we hold, Dutilleux says   that we can not leave Indians as animals in a   zoological garden, does it remind you of anything? As we write these lines, he parades Chief Raoni in front of the media in the Belgian animal park of Pairi Daiza. Irony, when you believe us.

---

For more

about the Xingu Institute :
1- Complete presentation of the Raoni Institute (2000)
2- Report on the feasibility of the project   of the Raoni Institute, by GRET (2001)
3- Complete presentation of the first   Xingu Institute project (2001)
4- Flyer   presentation of the Xingu Institute (2002)
5- Présentation de l'Institut Xingu (2016)

other articles :
6- Deposit of the trademark "  Raoni  "   by the Association for the Virgin Forest (2011)
7- " Raoni hostage interests   French economics in the Amazon? » Survival News (October 2011)
8- 102/5000 Amazon Planet News Release the handling of Chief Raoni to sign a statement 28 July 2016 (télécharger au format PDF)
9- Communique from Chief Raoni and Megaron asking to   Jean-Pierre Dutilleux not to return to the land of Chief Raoni 12 août 2016 (download as PDF ; download the original in Portugese)
10- Video of Chief Raoni and Megaron, denouncing   Jean-Pierre Dutilleux 13 february 2017
11- Second part of the above video,   clarification by Patxon Metuktire, director of FUNAI 13 February 2017
12- Amazon Planet Communiqué   on the summary motion brought by Jean-Pierre Dutilleux to withdraw the video   cited above 15 February 2019
13- Amazon Planet Communiqué   announcing that Jean-Pierre Dutilleux was dismissed for the referred above suscribed -   March 16, 2019
14- Le Monde newspaper article   -   May 11, 2019
15- Amazon Planet Article: A   scandal smiles under Raoni's meeting with Macron, "  President of   polluters   " - May 12, 2019

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