RIO DE JANEIRO - The Brazilian government is attempting to
confiscate 16 rural estates owned by the church founded and headed by South
Korean Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the press reported Tuesday.
The
estates are among 46 that Moon's Unification Church - which in Brazil goes by
the name of Association of Families for Unification and World Peace - has
acquired in recent years in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.
The
state is the site of the association's largest agricultural complex, titled New
Hope, to which his followers - often known as "moonies" - from around
the world have flocked.
Brazil's
National Settlement and Agrarian Reform Institute (INCRA) on Monday announced
it will initiate administrative proceedings to expropriate 16 of the rural
properties, some on the grounds that they are unproductive and thus subject to
agrarian reform.
Others
may be seized because they are located within a national park or straddle the
Paraguayan border, according to the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.
In
all, the government is seeking to confiscate 10,072 hectares (24,870 acres) of
land, almost a seventh of the 67,080 hectares (165,630 acres) the sect owns in
Mato Grosso do Sul.
The
INCRA's Mato Grosso do Sul superintendent, Celso Cestari, said the organization
intends to inspect the moonies' 22 other estates in the near future to
determine whether they meet legal criteria for expropriation.
According
to Brazilian legislation, large rural properties that are not being farmed by
their owners may be seized and distributed among farmers registered in agrarian
reform programs.
Five
months ago, Brazil's Federal Police opened an investigation into reports of
irregularities in the acquisition of the lands and in the church's accounts.
Police
are also investigating whether the group has become a "threat to national
sovereignty" because of its rapid expansion at the border with Paraguay,
where the sect has also acquired land.
In
May, in a raid on Moon offices in Mato Grosso do Sul and Sao Paulo, police and
tax authorities seized accounting books, $250,000, telephones, computers and
other electronic equipment.
The
sect's accounts came under scrutiny when former Moon associate Jai Siki Kim
told police he had helped the association launder money in Brazil.
Moon,
a fervent anti-communist, has been indicted and arrested on tax-evasion charges
in the United States, and his organization has been banned in several Latin
American countries.