British journalist confirmed dead in Brazil, US urges ‘accountability’

• Remains of British journalist Dom Phillips officially identified by Brazilian police.
• Phillips and his guide, indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, went missing in the Amazon in June
• Indigenous people march in Lima to demand protection for natural resources, mourn deaths of Phillips and Pereira.

The remains of British journalist Dom Phillips, who went missing while on a book research trip in the Amazon, were officially identified by Brazilian police on Friday.

The grim outcome comes after the June 5 disappearance of Phillips and his guide, indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, sparked an international outcry, with the US calling for “accountability” on Friday.

Phillips was identified through “forensic dentistry combined with forensic anthropology,” the Federal Police said in a statement.

It said it was still working on “complete identification” of the unearthed remains, which may include those of Pereira, who had received multiple death threats.

Veteran correspondent Phillips, 57, and Pereira, 41, went missing in a remote part of the rainforest rife with illegal mining, fishing and logging, as well as drug trafficking.

Ten days later, on Wednesday, a suspect named Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira — known as “Pelado” — took police to a place where he said he had buried bodies near the city of Atalaia do Norte, where the pair had been headed by boat.

Human remains unearthed from the site arrived in Brasilia on Thursday evening for identification by forensics experts.

Read More: Search for a missing British journalist: a body was discovered tied to a tree in the Amazon

Earlier Friday, police said investigations pointed to the perpetrators having “acted alone, without there being an intellectual author or criminal organization behind the crime.”

“The investigations continue and there are indications of the participation of more people” in the murders, it added.

Activists have blamed the killings on President Jair Bolsonaro for allowing commercial exploitation of the Amazon at the cost of the environment and law and order.

For his part, Bolsonaro sought to lay blame at the door of the men themselves for undertaking a “reckless” trip in an area where Phillips was “disliked.”

Phillips, a longtime contributor to The Guardian and other leading international newspapers, was working on a book on sustainable development in the Amazon with Pereira as his guide.

Pereira, an expert at Brazil’s indigenous affairs agency FUNAI, had received multiple threats from loggers and miners with their eye on isolated Indigenous land.

The Univaja association of Indigenous peoples, which had taken part in the search for the men, refuted the police’s conclusion that the killers had acted alone.

“These are not just two killers, but an organized group that planned the crime in detail,” Univaja said in a statement.

It claimed authorities had ignored numerous complaints about the activities of criminal gangs in the area.

Univaja said it had filed a report in April that “Pelado” was involved in illegal fishing.

He had previously been accused, it claimed, of “being the perpetrator of gun attacks in 2018 and 2019 against a base of FUNAI,” the organization Pereira had worked for.

Univaja said that “a powerful criminal organization (had) tried at all costs to cover its tracks during the investigation” of the double murder.

Experts say illegal fishing of endangered species in the Javari Valley takes place under the control of drug traffickers who use the sale of fish to launder drug money.

Police said Friday night they have issued an arrest warrant for a man identified as Jeferson da Silva Lima. It is not known how he is linked to the case.

Heavily armed soldiers who had taken part in the search for the two men started leaving Atalaia do Norte Friday.

People there who helped in the search and reported illegal activity are now afraid for their lives, said Paulo Marubo, an Univaja coordinator.

“We are going to keep living here, and the state is not going to give people any kind of protection,” said Marubo, who says he has received threats.

The United States on Friday urged “accountability and justice” for the murders.

Read More: Human remains discovered in hunt for a missing British journalist in Amazon

State Department spokesman Ned Price offered condolences to the men’s families, saying they were “murdered for supporting the conservation of the rainforest and native peoples there.”

An estimated 100 Indigenous people in traditional dress marched in Lima on Friday to demand protection for natural resources on native lands and to mourn the deaths of Phillips and Pereira.

“The blood that has been spilled will never be forgotten,” the group chanted as it marched to the Justice Ministry. People at the head of the procession carried a banner reading “protect land, water and life.”