Again, the measure did little to protect the Indians. In 1993, the world was shocked by the massacre of 16 Yanomami in the village of Haximu. Miners brutally shot, beat, or hacked, men, women and children to death. Brazilian police ruled that because it was an attempt to destroy an entire community, it was an act of genocide. The Brazilian community was less shocked.
People deny that the massacre ever took place.
Newspapers argued that there was no genocide. No bodies had been found, except for the skeleton of one female Indian. Attorneys for the miners quickly supported this reasoning, ignoring the fact that Yanomami ritually cremate their dead and grind their bones to powder. They also argued that there has been incidents of violence by the Yanomami against whites that have not been officially punished and decried the injustice of punishing the whites. Every study on violence against the Yanomami and the diseases infecting them sets the blame squarely on the government's shoulders.