London - Being forced to live on tiny reservations is driving Brazil's Guarani Indians to suicide, the country's largest tribe said yesterday, demanding the return of their ancestral lands and an end to 500 years of persecution.
Launching the Guaranis' campaign, London-based rights group Survival International warned that dozens of undiscovered Indian tribes believed to be living in Brazil's rainforests face annihilation unless their tribal lands are safeguarded.
Statisticians put the Guarani suicide rate at 50 per 100,000 for 1999 - 14 times the Brazilian average and higher than any nation in the world. Fourteen Guarani killed themselves over the past year alone.
