Here is a translation of the article from Portuguese to English. Not a perfect translation, but very interesting and worth reading.
http://amazoniareal.com.br/ex-missionar ... s-do-acre/FORMER MISSIONARY CONVICTED IN THE U.S. WORKED WITH INDIAN ACRE
Elaize Farias 1/30/2014
Former missionary Warren Scott Kennell, 45, sentenced last Tuesday (28) to 58 years imprisonment by the Court of the United States for sexual abuse of indigenous girls in the Brazilian Amazon, he worked for six years, from 1995 to 2001 in a stand of New Tribes Mission of Brazil (NTM) in the village Seven Stars, where katukina and yanawawá Indians live in the state of Acre.
With dual citizenship (American and Brazilian), Kennell received an Indian name, ARO, circulated in several villages in the region, could speak fluently the language and even katukina having already retired from the post of NTM in the reserve, he continued to visit the area up in 2013. Under the coordination of the NTM, Kennell was disconnected from the institution after being arrested at Orlando airport in Florida, United States, last year.
Investigations against Warren Scott Kennell began in May 2013 when he was arrested after arriving at Orlando airport a trip from Manaus (AM) by the agency ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), integrated with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, that clears pedophile crimes.
Within the hand luggage of a former missionary, ICE agents found an external hard drive with 940 pornographic images of indigenous girls. Kennell's arrest sparked Operation Wicked by the Federal Police, which investigates his performance in the states of Acre and Amazonas.
According to the delegate Rafael Caldera Machado, PF Amazon, which coordinates investigations of Operation Wicked, at the time of the action 18 search warrants and seizure were met at the headquarters of NTM in Manaus, and a former residence of Kennell on Cruise South (AC).
An inquiry was launched to investigate the crimes defined in the Statute of Children and Adolescents, including the shooting or post scenes of explicit sex or pornography involving children or adolescents on the Internet, and rape vulnerable. "He will be judged by Brazilian law," the delegate said.
According to the delegate, the investigation is now centered in the identification of victims of Warren Kennell who were abused as children, aiming to clarify the facts and assist victims. Caldera said that although Kennell has acted mostly in katukina villages, one can not yet say that abuses have been committed against girls of Roma, as he worked among other indigenous peoples.
Caldera said the work location has restrictions as the photographs of indigenous girls are no references them. In some photos the same or their faces appear. Another obstacle is that the victims would now be aged between 14 and 16 years.
"This complicates our identification work because we have pictures of children with the appearance of 8 and 9 years. The ICE agency is helping us in whatever is necessary to identify these girls, including providing assistance to families of them, "the delegate said Caldera.
Guilty
According to information from the United States Attorney in Tampa (Florida) to the international press during the depositions Warren Scott Kennell pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child pornography between 2008 and 2011.
At sentencing, the district's chief judge, Anne Conway, said Warren Kennell had abused his position of trust as a missionary. Also noted that he admitted he had friendship with indigenous children and then sexually abused them while working on a project the organization New Tribes Mission, which has its headquarters in Sanford, also in Florida.
In a note posted on Wednesday (29) portal to Amazon Real , the direction of NTM says "one more time declare that we are shocked by the case Warren Scott Kennell and the victims who suffer so much." "MNTB reaffirms commitment to prevention and protection of children and adolescents" and claims to be grateful for the efforts of Brazil to ban "this ignoble practice 'authorities, the statement said the mission, noting that, as the process is being processed in secrecy; knows nothing else beyond that published by the press.
Seven Stars
Warren Scott Kennell worked until 2001 in the position of the Seven Stars village in Indigenous Gregory River, and had access to communities of different reserves. In 2001, according to note the NTM, Kennell came to live in a house built near katukina indigenous area in the BR-364, which connects Rio Branco to Cruzeiro do Sul in 2011 it was incorporated into the department's consulting NTM headquartered in Manaus (AM).
In an interview with Real Amazon , Professor Shere Katukina Samaúma the village, the Indigenous Land Campinas-Katukina, Kennell said he arrived on the reservation as a child, taken by missionaries American parents. Later, he was studying in the United States and returned in the '90s, now boy. The name was given by ARO katukina. Not an exact translation of the name there.
Shere said he was unaware of the arrest and conviction of Kennell and was surprised with the news. According to the Indian teacher, former missionary spoke katukina "better than katukina" and liked to play with children.
"Never suspect he could do any harm. He was a missionary and so we trusted. He used to make chocolates, toys and ride a bike with the girls. Now, with this news, let's talk about it here in the village, "he said. As indigenous, Kennell was still seen in 2013 visiting some villages katukina, including Samaúma.
Shere, who is 42 years old, made training course for indigenous teacher, equivalent to the Magisterium. Asked by this reporter had the notion of crimes such as "sexual abuse" against children and pedophilia, he said negatively. "I have a bit of study, but do not know what it is not," he said.
FUNAI (National Indian Foundation) not officially commented on the matter, but the indigenous Jairo Lima, server Regional Coordination Juruá Funai, based in Cruzeiro do Sul (AC), said that up to 10 years ago, the presence of New Tribes Mission of Brazil was strong in indigenous lands of Acre. One of the stations was installed in the Indigenous Gregory River, municipality of Itarauacá where lies the village Seven Stars. On booking, the indigenous live yanawawá katukina and ethnicities.
He said the missionary activity of MNTB expanded to other reserves, such as Campinas-Katukina Indigenous Land, in Cruzeiro do Sul In the early 2000s, the missionary presence was reduced, partly due to backlash expressed by Indians themselves.
"The New Tribes of Brazil served in Acre long until he began to have a very big move for the departure of the missionaries of the villages. Indigenous leaders began to question religious interference in their cultures. Some who went in settled villages of houses built on the edge of the BR-364. They were no longer in the villages, but still maintaining contact with the indigenous people, "says Jairo Lima, in an interview with Real Amazon.
Shutdown
In a statement released after the arrest of former missionary, last year, the direction of NTM in Brazil, said Warren Scott Kennell was immediately disconnected from the institution when it learned of the fact. The organization is made available to the Brazilian authorities for clarification and cooperation in investigations.
MNTB says before traveling Kennel objects left the organization's headquarters in Manaus, and that ended up being seized by the police. MNTB reports that former missionary served 18 years in the organization, most of the time in Acre, and that during that time "there was never anything that raises suspicion about their moral conduct and that their personal actions connection with the entity."
Prohibitions
Shere Katukina said the New Tribes Mission of Brazil worked together with their people for a long time. He says that when he was born, the missionaries were already in the villages, teaching the Indians writing in katukina language. Decades later, the Indians themselves called for the withdrawal of the local missionaries, when they realized that religious action was interfering with their cultures.
"We accept them here, but then began to make many prohibitions. They did not want us to practice witchcraft, they said it was a world of illusion. They did not want us to take ayahuasca (typical drink of indigenous Acre, which has hallucinogenic and therapeutic effect), they said it was a sin. The only good thing they did was teach us to read in our language. They translated into our language the corners of the church and the word of God and thus taught us to read, "says Shere.
Shere says many Indians also began to react to the work to which they were subjected by the missionaries in exchange for medicines and clothes. "I travel, I learned and understood. I became conscious and became conscious people. I saw that we had every right to keep our culture and tradition in the village, "he says.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
