BOA VISTA, Brazil, May 1 (UPI) -- A Brazilian Indian rights group has freed four policemen held hostage for more than a week, Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper reported Sunday.
Members of the Macuxi tribe from the Amazon area released the officers who were unharmed during their nine days in captivity. The Indians released the officers after receiving reassurances the Brazilian government would work to improve living conditions for the Macuxi living on a new reservation.
A small group of Macuxi abducted the officers to protest creation of a 6,500-square-mile Indian reservation in the northern state of Roraima.
Their concerns about the reservation stem from the fact that local rice producers who are not part of the tribe will be forced to leave, taking with them thousands of jobs.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has vowed to create more reservations to honor an amendment in Brazil's constitution calling for greater distribution of land to Brazil's indigenous peoples.
