23 people killed in Brazil land strife this year

Rio De Janeiro: At least 23 landless farmers have been killed so far this year in conflicts over land, mostly in the Amazon basin region, an NGO has reported.

Twenty-one of the deaths took place in Para and Rondonia states where squatters and small landholders often clash with holders of massive land tracts, according to the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), a Christian non-governmental organization.

The two other deaths were in Maranhao and Bahia state, the group added yesterday.

For the same time period a year earlier, there were 20 such killings nationwide, the CPT said.

In Brazil, one per cent of the population of over 200 million holds 46 per cent of all arable land.