Violence institutionalised by the state in Chile

CONTENTS

Summary ~ Truth and justice in Chile ~ Impunity instead of justice ~ The persecution of the Mapuche during the dictatorship ~ Violence by the sate and paramilitary ~ Political prisoners ~ Escape to Argentina ~ ILO Convention 169 ~ The case of Aucán Huilcamán ~ The Free trade Agreement between the EU and Chile ~ Legal situation ~ Demands of the GfbV ~ Summary

"Truth and justice” is the demand of human rights experts and the organisations representing victims in the process of reconciliation in Chile to the present day. For 33 years after the putsch, with which General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the government of Salvador Allende, impunity is still broadly the rule for the wrongdoers. The Mapuche also belong to the victims of the violence institutionalised by the state, who with about 10% of the population of Chile are the largest indigenous people in the country. They are divided into the Mapuche, Pehuenche, Huilliche, Lafquenche, Nagche und Huenteche.

A working party of the United Nations confirmed in 1978: "On the day of the putsch the large land-owners and land barons, the military and the uniformed police began a concerted chase after the Mapuche.” In 1979 the Inter-American Committee for Human Rights in Latin America (Comité Interamericano de Derechos Humanos en América Latina) established that the Mapuche were being persecuted simply on the basis of their ethnic identity.

The land reform begun by President Allende, which had restored 700,000 hectares of land to the Mapuche, was rescinded too.

The "Commission for Truth and Justice” also called after its chairperson "Rettig Commission”, estimates the number of Mapuche who were murdered and abducted at more than 100. The Rettig Commission was appointed in April 1990 by the first president of the government coalition Concertación Patricio Aylwin to investigate the cases of those murdered and abducted. Persons who had survived incarceration and torture were not included in the statistics. Among the victims of physical and mental violence were also many Mapuche. In the first months after the revolution they made up 80 percent of those incarcerated in the prison of Temuco.

The Rettig Commission and also the Round Table appointed in 1999 (Mesa de Diálogo) had the task of ascertaining the truth. What outraged human rights experts and the "Association of Relatives of those who Disappeared after Abduction” (AGDD) was that justice including the punishment of the culprits was not intended. These profited from the amnesty law passed in the dictatorship in 1978, which is still valid today. Witnesses who were prepared to give evidence of violations of human rights were also assured impunity. However the armed forces admitted for the first time that there had indeed been people who had disappeared after their arrest.

The Mapuche count as an ethnic group in Chile, but not as a people with a culture and history of their own. Chile has so far not reacted to one of their most important demands, i.e. the ratification of the Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation ILO. This is the only international legal instrument for indigenous peoples, assuring them cultural, religious, political and economic integrity and participation as indigenous people, this being the official expression of the United Nations.

Instead of this the Mapuche are not allowed to use their own language Mapudungun with offices, in court cases or in their personal documents. Promises of the Chilean democracy, now already 16 years old, that the land stolen from them would be returned to them, have so far not been fulfilled. Instead trans-national timber companies are continuing the destruction of the land of the Indian small farmers by planting monocultures with fir-trees and eucalyptus trees for the pulp industry. When the desperate Mapuche occupy their land non-violently they are criminalized and driven out by force by the security forces of the big landowners and the police.

Truth and justice in Chile

"Truth and justice in Chile” is what the human rights experts and the organisations of the victims demand of the reconciliation process in Chile. In September 2005 immunity was withdrawn from General Adolpho Pinochet, who is meanwhile 89 years old. Psychologists have established that the ex-dictator, who is supposed to be suffering from dementia, diabetes and heart problems, is only feigning his health problems and is very well capable of dealing with a court case. Pinochet is accused of being responsible for the disappearance of at least 9 regime critics, who lost their lives during the so-called ‘Operation Colombo’ in 1975. There is reason to believe that there were at least 119 persons killed during this secret operation. More than 3000 people were killed in the name of the regime during Pinochet’s rule of violence. Among the victims were also thousands of Mapuche, whose fates remain unknown to this day. In a democratic Chile the Mapuche are hoping for cultural and economic integrity, for the return of the lands stolen from them during the dictatorship, political participation and not least their official recognition as an indigenous people.

The "Commission for Truth and Justice” was appointed by the first president of the coalition government (Concertaciòn), Patricio Aylwin, in April 1970.with the job of throwing as much light as possible on the crimes of the military dictatorship, clearing up the worst crimes, highlighting the background and circumstances and identifying the individual victims. The task was to trace all the victims, including therefore those among the Mapuche. The sole concern was for the dead and the disappeared. The many thousands who were tortured were not taken into consideration. True, the commission had the task of recommending measures for the recompense and rehabilitation of the victims. But they were not allowed to name the offenders or pass judgement on them. The report covered all told 2050 victims of state violence, 90 victims of the opponents of the dictatorship, 778 cases in which no responsibility could be located (cf. Claudia Höchst: Vergangenheitsbewältigung und ihre Rolle im Demokratisierungsprozess postautoritärer Systeme. Der Fall Chile; Arbeitshefte des Lateinamerikazentrums der Westfälischen Wilhelmsuniversität Münster, Nr. 81, 2003).. It is not likely that the real number of victims will ever be ascertained. Estimates vary and go up to 3,200 executed and disappeared and 50,000 prisoners who survived imprisonment and torture (taz, 6./7.9.2003).

When with the reform of the constitution in August 2005 the last remnants of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet were eradicated, the social-democrat President of Chile, Ricardo Lagos, declared that the phase of transition from the dictatorship to democracy was now closed. With the reform of the constitution the chief of state regains the power of appointing or dismissing the armed forces of the military and police officers (SZ 18.08.2005). Apart from this the institution of lifetime senators was abolished and the term of government shortened from six years to four. Although this must be seen as an important step in the direction of democracy, the Mapuche still suffer from social injustice and violence proceeding from the state, the military and the paramilitary.

Impunity instead of justice

The Round Table (Mesa de Diálogo), which was set up by President Frei in August 1999 also worked on the principle of impunity for witnesses who were prepared to speak out. Certainly, there were taking part representatives from the military and government, human rights lawyers and members of the church and personalities from culture and science. Excluded again however were the relatives of the victims, who were represented by the "Association of Relatives of those who Disappeared following Arrest” (AGDD). The Round Table came to an end on 13th June 2000 with the passing and signing of a four-page document, in which the military admitted for the first time that there had indeed been people who had ‘disappeared’ following their arrest. The armed forces committed themselves to providing information within six months leading to the clearing up of the fate of those who disappeared. Here too however impunity was made a condition for witnesses giving evidence and a law in this sense was quickly passed. "So truth was given priority over justice, which explains the energetic protests of some human rights organisations against the agreement”, says the Report on Chile for the year 2000 of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation KAS. At the end of these six months a list of persons who had disappeared, totalling only 200 cases, was presented, whereby the information given must be viewed critically. Thus for example the army declared that dead bodies had been thrown over the sea in 1973, the remains of which were found in exhumations in 1992 and identified (Brennpunkt Lateinamerika, Nr.8 2001, S. 81). Abelina Marihuán, the widow of an official of the CP Chile, who disappeared immediately after the putsch, waited for months in the year 2001 at the side of a copper-mine near Santiago for the remains of her husband to be recovered. It was said that his corpse together with those of other CP officials had been put there in December 1976, but the bones which were finally discovered in the next shaft could not be identified (taz, 6./7.9.2003).

The persecution of the Mapuche during the dictatorship

The Mapuche were like thousands of Chilean regime critics in the first years after the putsch the victims of torture, murder and ‘disappearance’. A commission of the United Nations confirmed in a report of 1978: "On the day of the putsch the big land-owners, the land barons, the military and the uniformed police began methodically chasing down the Mapuche.” In 1979 the Inter-American Committee for Human Rights in Latin America (Comité Interamericano de Derechos Humanos en América Latina) ascertained that the Mapuche were being persecuted just on account of their being an indigenous people. Under Allende many Mapuche had profited from the land reform, which had returned to them some 700,000 hectares of land. Others had taken part in the occupation of about 75,000 hectares of land of the big landowners. In September 1972 the Allende government passed a law (Law No. 17.729), which gave the Mapuche fundamental rights in the constitution. The return of land rights which had been lost, the extension of territorial guarantees, the promotion of social and cultural matters, the improvement of health and teaching in their mother tongue Mapudungun. All these promises were reversed when Pinochet came to power by force of arms.

The ensuing persecution of the Mapuche was just as brutal in the years following the putsch. According to the figures of the time the number of Mapuche victims ran to several thousand. There was talk of dozens of corpses floating down the rivers, for example near the town of Pitrufquen, and of lorry-loads of corpses from areas like Puraquina. The number of the Mapuche victims could however never be established precisely. Thus it is not possible to state the ethnic origin of many small farmers or those arrested in the town estates who were murdered. So the corpse of a Mapuche student from Temuco who was murdered at the time was not found until 1990.

The Rettig Commission estimates the number of Mapuche who were murdered or disappeared at more than 100. The Society for Threatened Peoples has a list of 116 murdered Mapuche. Representatives of the Mapuche reckon with more than 300 members of their people out of altogether about 3,000 persons murdered. Members of certain communities were tortured, such as from the villages of Llama, Viluco and Allanao. Notorious was the attack on the village of Liquiñe (150 km north of Valdivia) in October 1973, which cost 15 Mapuche their lives. . (Dr. Theodor Rathgeber: Chile: Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit an Mapuche-Indianern unter Ex-Diktator Pinochet 1973 – 1990; A Memorandum of the Society for Threatened Peoples, January 1999).

All institutions and organisations which took up the cause of the Mapuche and their participation in decision-making on their future were suppressed and smashed by the military junta. The national association of the Mapuche (Confederación Nacional de Mapuche) was forbidden immediately after the putsch, its leaders were arrested, tortured and many driven into exile. All members of the regional associations of the Mapuche were arrested, many being tortured. In the prison of Temuco, the urban centre of the Mapuche, they made up 80 percent of the prisoners in the first months following the putsch. Until the end of the eighties the army and police occupied Mapuche communities and dissolved them. The persecution was accompanied by mental and social misery. Those who suffered most were the children. Support with milk, clothing or articles needed for school were stopped. Up to the middle of the eighties one third of the Mapuche children died within the first year (pogrom 113/85, p.44). The native language of the Mapuche Mapudungun was no longer allowed at official meetings.

Immediately after the putsch the military junta began to end the non-violent occupation of land, stopping the land reform and gradually reversing it. By October 1974 already 80 percent of the lands expropriated in the land reform were returned to the big landowners.

An important instrument here was the Law No. 2.568 from the year 1979, Article 1 of which stated: "…from the moment of dissolution (of the community) the lands are no longer to be seen as native land and the owners are no longer natives”. The law rendered possible the dissolution of communally managed land and its parcelling out into private plots, which could then be sold. For the law to be brought to bear it sufficed for a single member of a Mapuche community to express the wish to dissolve the communal property even without the agreement of the other members. A similar law (No. 2.885) legalised the purloining of land from the Rapanui on the Easter Islands.

However it was not collective property alone, which was destroyed, but also all political, social, economic and cultural institutions of the Mapuche, which were attached to a collective management of the territory. Of 2,060 land communities of Mapuche small farmers at the beginning of the seventies there remained at the end of the eighties only 665. To break the land occupation movement of the Mapuche the government uses up to the present day the Anti-terror Law (Law No. 18.314) and the Law for Inner Security (Law No. 12.927), with which the Indians are criminalized and stigmatised as terrorists. Already in 1992/93 in the course of the land occupations 144 members of the organisation "Consejo de todas las Tierras” (Council of all Lands) were sentenced to terms of imprisonment as members of a "criminal organisation”. (Dr. Theodor Rathgeber, op. cit.)

The present Mapuche conflict

In October 19997 Mapuche of the Lumaco community blockaded a public road. This was the beginning of a broad movement making public the demands of the Mapuche: the right to an identity and language of their own and the return of the lands stolen from them during the Pinochet dictatorship. For most Chileans the Mapuche belonged already to the past, but when they began to stand up energetically for their interests no one in the Andes country could any longer overlook the indigenous people. In the ‘small Chiapas’ many communidades (rural Mapuche communities) and Mapuche organisations carried out land occupation, road blockades, hunger strikes, demonstrations and other campaigns of civil disobedience (El Mercurio, 10.03.1999).

While the Chilean state is pushing ahead with a neo-liberal modernisation of the land by encouraging timber companies, infrastructure projects, gigantic power plants with hydro-electric power and tourism projects, the Mapuche are defending their demands on land in the 8th, 9th and 10th region and their concept of their own independent development. These economic projects are destroying the natural environment of the Mapuche, so that the small farmers can hardly maintain their traditional way of life. Meanwhile in the 16th year of the Chilean democracy they are left with only 200,000 hectares of land, i.e. about half the area of Berlin. The individual families own mostly less than one hectare of land, rendering agricultural activity impossible and thus endangering the survival of the Mapuche. Many have to give up and go off to the cities, where they mostly finish up in the slums. About half of all the Mapuche have already been driven into the cities. The Chilean Ministry of Agriculture states that a rural business requires at least 36 hectares to maintain itself.

In recent years about 50 land conflicts were reported concerning land belonging to timber companies in the 8th, 9th and 10th regions, i.e. the heartland of the Mapuche. A Mapuche proverb says: ‘Whatever we do to nature, we do to ourselves.’ In the old days auraco trees, dark green conifers, served the Mapuche for flour to make tortillas and bread. Today pine and eucalyptus trees cover large areas of Chile, causing the water table to sink dangerously. Erosion is taking place and the use of pesticides and genetically changed species in forestry are destroying the natural ecological system of the original Chilean forest. By contrast refuse heaps are to be found on Mapuche lands, often near schools and housing estates.

The land conflict is becoming more violent all the time, leading to the use of repressive laws, which results in the militarisation of rural areas and serious infringements of human rights. There have been many fires in the plantations, swathes cut out systematically with chain saws through the property of the timber companies or damage caused to forest equipment. It is above all young, desperate Mapuche who take radical measures to lay emphasis on their demands (El Mercurio, 01.02.2001). But often the Mapuche are wrongfully accused of arson or damage to property, for there are strong motives for representing them as criminals and disturbers of the peace. The firms also profit from high insurance premiums. However the Mapuche who out of frustration and desperation take violent measures against property, are in fact a very small group. Most of the Mapuche are anxious to make their interests seen and heard with von-violent methods like road-blocks or land occupation under the leadership of their chiefs (lonkos) and speakers (verkenes).

The UN Special Correspondent for the Affairs of Indigenous Peoples, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, also emphasises that violence in the conflicts with the indigenous people of Chile is usually practised by the state. In June 2003 Stavenhagen carried out a visit of inspection through Chile to investigate the situation of the indigenous peoples. He described the charge of infringements of human rights against the Mapuche people as justified. Stavenhagen sees the central cause of conflict in the land problem. In his opinion the Mapuche must get their land back and be recompensed. He also agreed that there are Mapuche who take violent measures against property. If a people is suffering for years under repression from the state, the military, the paramilitary and the police, then one should not be surprised if sometimes the reaction is also violent. Under no circumstances should Mapuche be represented and sentenced as terrorists (Interview with Stavenhagen, Kolectivo Lientur, 24.07.2003). The renowned human rights organisation Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l’Homme (FIDH), which between 21st April and 1st May 2002 carried out an investigation into violations of human rights against the Mapuche came to the same conclusions as Stavenhagen. Regardless of this the criminalizing and persecution of the Mapuche continues.

Violence by the state and paramilitary

The Chilean state answers with two strategies to the political movement of the Mapuche. On the one hand demonstrations and non-violent land occupations are brutally beaten down. Together with private security forces of the forestry companies a quasi-military zone has been set up in the Mapuche regions. On the other hand the attempt is being made to solve the Mapuche problem by legal means: by criminalizing those Mapuche who are charged as terrorists under the "Law for Inner Security” which dates back to the Pinochet era (Law No. 18.314). This anti-terror law was reinforced in a sharper form under the democratic government of Eduardo Frei in 1997. Many Mapuche communities have been victims of the violent police action and attacks of armed persons in civilian clothing, which have not been cleared up. The Mapuche leaders, but also other politically active Mapuche, have been massively threatened and persecuted. Mapuche leaders and representatives of human rights organisations have now for some time been making charges to the police against the carabineros (armed police in barracks) for repressive action and also against their special units (GOPE). There is the dreadful case of the political prisoner Pascual Pichun, who among other things was persecuted because he informed human rights organisations like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty international and FIDH on the catastrophic situation of the Mapuche.

The opponents of the Mapuche do not draw back at murder either. The young Mapuche Jorge Suárez Marihuán, brother of the lonko of Malla Malla and himself active in the Mapuche movement, disappeared during a land occupation. Six days later, on 11th December 2001 his corpse was found in the Quenco river. The autopsy showed that he had been tortured and then murdered. The FIDH holds the state responsible for this crime and has demanded a legal investigation of the case.

On 26th March 2005 the Mapuche chief José Regle Calhueque, chairperson of the Mapuche community of Cano Antinao, was attacked in the early hours of the morning. When he left his house as usual to attend to the animals on his land he was attacked by three men, whose faces were hidden by hoods. After a short fight he noticed that his whole body became stiff. His attackers had injected an unknown substance into his chest. José Regle Calhueque was taken to the Viktoria hospital, but then transferred on account of his critical condition to the Temuco hospital, where he slowly recovered from the attack. The Mapuche community association Mülulche Kimün made a public statement to the Ministry of Justice and demanded that a commission be set up to investigate this attempt to murder an official of the Mapuche and to bring those involved to justice (www.mapuche-nation.org).

The violence of the military, the paramilitary and of the secret service does not stop at children. The twelve-year old daughter of the lonko Jose Nacupil, Daniela, was on 29th July 2002 forced by armed unknown men in civilian clothing to get into a car and held prisoner for several hours. A week later she was again abducted and interrogated about her family, beaten and frightened by threats of their killing her and her family. There has been an increase in the number of attacks on whole Mapuche communities. Together with the military and often with the private security services of the companies police squads, equipped with tear gas and accompanied by helicopters, storm the small Mapuche villages. In these operations people are usually hurt. It happened like this too on 21st April 2003, when a raid of the Chilean police took place in the Mapuche community of Montutui Mapu. The community was engaged in a court case over the return of their land in "Santa Alicia”, where the timber company Forestal Mininco S.a. has eucalyptus plantations. The attack was followed by a wave of arrests, in which the lonko of the community and women and children under 12 years old were taken into custody. The Mapuche complain of the bad treatment during remanding custody. Women have to undress in front of the policemen, children are separated from the adults, the prisoners are treated like animals, beaten and thrown to the ground (Enlace Mapuche Internacional; Indymedia.be 23.04.2003).. The violence of the state can also be seen in road controls, surveillance of the Mapuche areas from the air, house searches and night attacks by the carabineros of the barracked police, the civil police and members of the secret service.

In the light of such events the UN Committee against Torture called on the government of Chile to set up a comprehensive and impartial committee of inquiry to examine the practice of the carabineros. The UN Committee for Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights go further, requiring in cases of infringements of human rights involving members of the army or police that military tribunals should not be invoked, as otherwise there can be no guarantee of independent justice (Poonal, 10.05.2003).

The UN special correspondent Stavenhagen also criticises the massive restriction of the right to move freely of the Mapuche, who are subjected to unbelievable controls and are not allowed to cross the land of the timber companies without hindrance. By guards, often state "carabineros”, and high fences the Mapuche are kept out of their traditional areas. They are not even allowed to let their cattle graze between the trees.

Mapuche as political prisoners

It is particularly the leaders of the Mapuche in the land occupation movement who are charged on the basis of the Anti-terror Law No. 18.314. This law is in the opinion of the Society for Threatened Peoples a scandal for a democratic state. It is also used for damage to property and for "possible connection” with an association which "may be” classed as terrorist, allowing the prosecution to call witnesses who remain anonymous and whose statements can hardly be challenged. The accused can be held in custody on remand for months. Their relatives then soon find themselves in distress, being dependent on the income of each member of the family. Expensive lawyers to represent them in court can be afforded by only a very few. Because they have no confidence in Chilean justice many civil rights workers go underground. The GfbV has been working for a long time for the abolition of the Anti-terror Law and for the release of all the Mapuche who have been charged and sentenced on this basis. In the Memorandum "Mapuche in Chile fordern die Freilassung der politischen Gefangenen " (Mapuche in Chile Call for the Release of the Political Prisoners) (Göttingen 2005) the background to the campaign of autumn 2005 and the history of the Mapuche who are at present in prison is documented in detail.

"Today all Mapuche are terrorists unless we prove the contrary. That is the new justice,” says the farmer Victor Ancalaf Llaupe full of bitterness. The Mapuche Indian was sentenced on 2nd January 2004 to ten years imprisonment for "terrorist activity”. Because he lodged an appeal the sentence has been reduced to "only” five years and one day. The 37-year old father of five children had in 1997 founded a Mapuche civil rights movement in Chile. He was at that time arrested on several occasions. He was then charged with theft of timber. He was accused of the abduction of a minister, the temporary occupation of a courthouse and finally of setting fire to three agricultural vehicles. "Terrorist arson” was also the reason put forward against him in the sentence passed in the appeal case. All the other charges were dropped. The punishment for a crime, which Victor Ancalaf Llaupe had perhaps not committed, is however as high as if he were a serious danger to the public. Anyone in the young democracy of Chile taking part in the land rights movement of the indigenous peoples, in non-violent demonstrations, road blocks, land occupations or other non-violent initiatives against big landowners is quickly confronted with serious charges. "Belonging to a terrorist illegal organisation”, "terrorist threat” or "terrorist arson” are the standard charges, which are aimed at scaring the members of legitimate Indian civil rights movements and keeping them silent. Many Mapuche have already been charged, released, then accused again with the same put-up charges and finally sentenced to high fines and terms of imprisonment.

Flight to Argentina

The 23-year old Pascual Pichún Collonao, who was accused of arson, was found not guilty by a court in Angol on 10th April 2003. His father, the lonko Pascual Pichún (52), and one of his brothers, Rafael Pichún Collonao (21), are also in custody following cases under the Anti-terrorism Law. On 2nd July the sentence against Pascual Pichún was revised, on 9th September the case against him was opened once more, this time under the charge of terrorism. Pascual Pichún Collonao said in his statement to Stavenhagen:

"We live on 1 hectare of land, packed together like animals, we cannot produce anything and we have nothing which we can leave to our children. We live in poverty and right next door to us are the huge timber companies with an area of 2,000 hectares, like that of Mininco or Nancahue of Agustín Figueroa. We have knocked at many doors and handed in many petitions, but nothing happens, there is no solution in sight. A short time ago our water ran out, as the timber companies have exhausted the wells and reservoirs. The local government has given us a lorry with water for 600 persons! So we said we would fight and get back what makes us Mapuche: the land. Since we have risen up and raised our voices we are being persecuted. I now have three or four court cases running, I’m not quite sure how many. From the Mininco company, the state and the last from Agustin Figueroa. I spent a year in prison without any proofs against me. They said they had spoken to witnesses. But they don’t show their faces. They are supposed to have said that they had seen me doing this and that. But these were lies. The judges then said that I am not guilty. Now Figueroa is taking up the case against me again. They say that the old judge was no good. I’m being charged with terrorism again. Is that justice?”

The Mapuche live on both sides of the Andes in Chile and Argentina. By contrast with Chile, Argentina recognizes the status as an indigenous people with their own culture and history, which must be respected in accordance with the ILO Convention 169. So an Argentine Mapuche association has addressed itself directly to the Argentine government, trying to secure Pascual Pichún Collonao’s safety by asylum in Argentina. Students and enraged Mapuche from Puelmapu, Argentina, have joined with the ‘Association in the Fight for Political Asylum in Argentina for our Mapuche Brother Pascual Pichún Collonao’. They want to make the Argentine government understand that Pichún has a right to exile, that he is being persecuted solely on account of his ethnic identity and his political work in the von-violent struggle for social justice and being criminalized as a terrorist. Pascual Pichún Collonao is the first Mapuche from Chile to ask for political asylum from the Argentine government.

The ILO Convention 169

The Mapuche are the largest indigenous people in Chile and make up about 10% of the total population of 15 million. The indigenous people of Chile count as an ethnic group, but not as an indigenous people. There is a big difference here in international law. Consequently one of the main demands of the Mapuche is the ratification of the "Agreement N. 169 on indigenous peoples and those living in tribes”. This is at present the only instrument in international law which asserts fundamental rights for indigenous peoples and "tribal peoples” and which commits the signatory states with corresponding duties for their protection. The most important articles concern:

- The full granting of human rights and fundamental freedoms without hindrance or discrimination (Art. 2, 3),

- The right to cultural identity (Art. 4),

- The right to communal structures and traditions (Art. 4),

- The right to participation in the making of decisions affecting these peoples (Art. 6),

- The right to making one’s own future (Art. 6, 7),

- Equality before authorities and courts (Art. 2, 8, 9),

- Right to land and resources (Art. 13-19),

- Right to employment and adequate conditions of employment (Art. 20),

- Right to vocational training measures and access to the means of communication (Art. 21).

The case of Aucán Huilcamán

‘I don’t like the thought of apartheid existing here, in our country”, said the Mapuche speaker Aucán Huilcamán to the newspaper Azkintuwe after his candidature for the presidency had been turned down on 15.09.2005.

Under Chilean law every candidate for the presidency belonging to an independent party must be able to put forward 35,171 witnessed signatures. Huilcamán rode on a white horse and in traditional Mapuche attire through the country and was finally able to present 39,100 signatures. Of these however only 1,399 could be witnessed by a notary, since Huilcamán could not provide the 2,5 to 3 euros to pay for each witnessed signature.

"What happened in the case of Huilcamán and his candidature is an injustice and proves that the Chilean democratic system is elitist and discriminates political minorities,” said Francisco Estevez, President of the NGO Fundación Ideas. The certification of the signatures should not have to be paid for (www.mapuche-nation.org).

In the meantime the Inter-American Court of Justice (Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos CIDH), at which Huilcamán has lodged a complaint, is investigating the case of the failed presidential candidature of the Mapuche speaker. Although the case will have no effect on the elections, which took place on 11.12.2005, it will make it possible for the Mapuche to draw international attention to themselves and the social injustice under which they are suffering in Chile. Shortly after Huilcamán’s candidature was refused the fraction of the Greens in the European parliament wrote a letter of complaint to the Lagos government.

The Free Trade Agreement of the EU and Chile

Private and trans-national timber companies hold occupied about 95% of the land which previously belonged to the Mapuche. Altogether with 33.8 million hectares of forest almost half the total area of Chile is of value to the timber industry. Forestry means for the large timber companies however above all making the maximum profit with fast-growing trees. This has nothing to do with sustainable growth or the protection of the forest. In view of the predatory exploitation of nature, about which the state does nothing, the frustration of the Mapuche is increasing. So the timber companies choose to plant eucalyptus trees and fast growing conifers for the production of pulp. These use up more water than they give back. This and the large-scale deforestation of the former forest is lowering the water table and causing a dramatic increase of erosion. In 1999 already according to the statistics of the state forestry office (Corporación Nacional Forestal, CONAF) 62 percent of the total area of the country is affected. In Region 10, which is inhabited mainly by the Mapuche, 50 percent of the soil is already eroded.

On 1st February 2003 the Free Trade Agreement between the EU and Chile came into force. With a share of 23% of the total timber sector Europe is the third most important market after the USA and Asia. So Europe with its Chilean trade in timber and pulp is also to blame for the driving out of the Mapuche and the destruction of their traditional and natural habitat. As a trading partner and supporter of the commercialisation of the Chilean timber Europe, and thus also Germany, is daily contributing to the discrimination and increasing poverty of one of the oldest cultures of South America. This is leading to an aggravation of the territorial conflict between the Mapuche and the big landowners, and so also to more and more innocently condemned political prisoners in Chilean prisons. The land where arauco trees, which are considered holy in Mapuche areas, once stood, is now covered with conifers and eucalyptus trees.

Although many articles of the Free Trade Agreement (Articles 1, 12, 16, 28 and 91) refer not only to the protection of the environment but also to the support for and protection of human rights, Europe is turning the Mapuche into victims of ‘progress’ and endangering not only their cultural heritage, but also their survival.

Criticism of these flourishing enterprises, which are heralded as symbols of development, progress, economy, work, the preservation of nature and renewable resources, is quashed as an unpatriotic act. The activity of the Mapuche, environmental activists and human rights workers are represented in the media as violent and illegal and compared with international terrorism. The causes of the conflicts are kept hidden. For public opinion however it is what is put out by the mass media which counts.

Legal situation:

Under president Patricio Aylwin two laws were passed for the protection of the hereditary rights of the Mapuche and their natural environment: the "Ley de los Pueblos Indígenas” (the law concerning the indigenous peoples of 1993) and the "Ley del Medio Ambiente” (the law concerning the environment of 1994). In the "Ley Indígena” there is no recognition for the Mapuche of the status of a people, there is mention only of an indigenous population. Likewise in 1993 the Indian Office CONADI (Corporación Nacional De Desarrollo Indígena, the National Agency for Indigenous Development) was founded, whose activity meets however with rather a mixed reception among the Mapuche. The chairperson of the "Coordinadora de Communidades en Conflicto” (the Coordination Committee of Communities in Conflict), José Huenchunao, issued a clear rejection of the state CONADI. He said that it does not fulfil its duties and is not capable of improving the situation of the Mapuche. The impotence of the Office is illustrated by the fact that one of its chairpersons was simply removed following his speaking out publicly against the Ralco dam on the Bio Bio river, a project which had long been bitterly opposed by the Mapuche. The "Ley Indígena” has certainly created the possibility of buying land for the Mapuche, which has in some cases taken place. However neither in the quantity nor in the quality has this land been suitable for the losses suffered. The laws protecting the Indians, however well meant they may possibly be, suffer from chronic under-financing. empty coffers when it comes to buying buying land back. The lands which were bought back from the timber companies for the Mapuche are already exhausted and useless for farming purposes.

Demands of the Society for Threatened Peoples:

- The release of all Mapuche sentenced on the basis of the Anti-terrorism Law

- The closing of all still active cases

- The abolition of the Anti-terror Law

- Fair land reform for the Mapuche. Linked to this is the return of their original territories

- Examination of all cases against Mapuche involving land rights

-The recognition of the Mapuche and the other indigenous peoples of Chile through the ratification of Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation

- The clearing-up of the fate of the Mapuche victims of the Pinochet dictatorship

- Adequate participation of the Mapuche and all other indigenous peoples of Chile through unimpeded admission of their candidates to elections