Rio Dolce disaster: Anger turns to rage over 'Brazilian Fukushima'

Until a massive toxic mudslide wiped-out the local environment two weeks ago, the natural habitat of the Krenak indigenous people was the shores of the Rio Doce ("Sweet River" in Portuguese ).

"We fished here, we swam here, we prayed here. The river was our life", said Shirley Krenak, 36, a tribe leader, as she showed dozens of dead fish and shrimps floating in the brown tide of mud in the district of Resplendor .

In a desperate and powerful demonstration, replicated since then by other groups, 350 tribe members moved their homes from the fertile slopes to the tracks of the Brazilian mining company Vale's private railway in the region.

"The environmental destruction has sparked a 'fair war' against Vale", argued Shirley, while children played along the Vitoria-Minas rails and armed, body-painted men from the tribe blocked intruders.

After four days of blockade and intense negotiations, Vale - which exports billions of dollars of minerals to China through this 660km railway - and the Krenak reached a deal to open the route. The world's largest iron-ore producer agreed to supply the natives with drinking water and clean up the river, a promise received with mistrust by the Krenak.

"We will fight until the end for our river," Shirley said. "We want a total restoration of it, and if Vale fails to do so, we will again occupy the rails."

Vale refused to say if its mineral deliveries to China were impacted by the action. The river was heavily polluted by 60 million cubic metres of waste water released when two dams collapsed on November 5 at an iron-ore mine property of mining company Samarco, which is equally owned by Vale and its Australian partner BHP Billiton in Minas Gerais.