Home | Front Page | News | Articles | Documents | Environmental | Archive | Discussion Point
Events Calendar
| Links |
About Us

Mapuches Delegates appeal to the Human Rights Council

Geneva, March 13, 2008

Letter sent to the President of the Human Rights Council, which prompted the dispatch of a mission to Chile or the visit of the Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Affairs of the Human Rights Council, to investigate indigenous communities claim of human rights violations of the Mapuche people.

The letter includes the statement read to the assembly of the Council by Reynaldo Mariqueo, he was unable to read part of the speech due to the short time allotted to NGOs (3 minutes) to make their presentations. The letter also includes a numbers of organizations that joined the petition and a list of political prisoners that we contacted prior to the presentation to the Human Rights Council.

Flor Rayen Calfunao
Mapuche community member

Reynaldo Mariqueo
Mapuche Werken (Mapuche Special Envoy)

___________________________________

Intervention by Reynaldo Mariqueo before the United Nations Human Rights Council

Human Rights Council
United Nations
7th Session
(Geneva , March 3-28, 2008)
Agenda Item No. 4, Debate

Document presented by the Society for Threatened Peoples

Mr. President,

The illegal annexation of the territory of the independent Mapuche nation, through a genocidal war waged by the States of Chile and Argentina between 1860 and 1885, produced a territorial conflict of grand proportions that continues to this day. It is a conflict that, thanks to new communications technologies, is known today throughout the world.

To halt the developing Mapuche movement, which fights peacefully for their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, as well as for the right to self determination and the development and recovery of their territory, the Chilean government has embarked on a repressive campaign that includes the use of social control methods of a racist nature. This is expressed in the application of repressive laws and in the action of militarized police and private guards supplied with weapons of war, devices such as were used during the military regime of General Pinochet against all Chileans, but which the present government today applies exclusively against the Mapuches.

The criminalization of the Mapuche protests for the recovery of their territory and for the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms has meant the detention of hundreds of people, who are subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Others suffer the effects of police brutality, such as the loss of their sight and fractures in various parts of their bodies, while others have been assassinated, the most recent of which was Matias Catrileo, a 22-year-old student who was mortally wounded in the back by shrapnel from a submachine-gun while he was participating in a peaceful demonstration. The police officer who committed the crime was detained for only a few days and has now been reinstated into the institution.

The use of the Antiterrorist Law gives special powers to the police and to judges, enabling them to keep suspects in preventive detention for long periods of time; Jorge Cadin and Ernesto Lincopan were declared innocent and freed after almost a year of incarceration. The application of the terrorist Law and the lack of procedural guarantees and an independent tribunal have been condemned by all international human rights organizations and by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Issues, Mr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen, who, in his November 2003 report, made specific recommendations that the Chilean government chose to ignore.

We denounce the use of rural schools (located in Mapuche communities) by the police as interrogation centers for Mapuche children. Indeed, on June 18, 2007, the Collipulli police converged on the Villa Chiguaigue School to interrogate Mapuche children with the object of investigating their activities and those of their parents. Naturally, actions of this nature cause serious psychological trauma to the children, who are not provided with the professional attention that would permit them to overcome the trauma, and who as a result, refuse to go to the schools for fear of being detained.

What happened in this school is not the first such incident, nor is it an isolated case in the rural schools of the region, where this type of intimidating practice on the part of the police is common practice, flagrantly violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The other problem is the detention of minors for participating in demonstrations, many of whom are interned with adults and exposed to abuses such as those which happened to, among others, Jose Galvarino Lepicheo.

Due to time constraints, it is impossible for us to recount in a detailed way the dramatic situation of the Mapuche and the violation of their human rights and fundamental freedoms. Therefore, on behalf of these communities and organizations and Mapuche political prisoners, as well as organizations concerned with their situation (see list below), we are soliciting for the urgent dispatch to Chile of a mission or the visit of this Council's Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Issues in order to verify in situ the afore-mentioned reports.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Reynaldo Mariqueo
Mapuche Werken (Special Envoy)

Geneva, March 13, 2008

_____________________________________________

Mapuche situation: Additional Information:

We denounce the official policy of intimidation, which includes the encroachment of rural communities by the militarized police and by private guards, especially in those zones of territorial conflict between the Mapuche communities and forestry companies or landowners of large estates. This situation creates a climate of tension that restricts the free movement of the Mapuche in their territory and interferes with their daily work because they are continually subject to house searches and arbitrary detentions at any hour of the day or night by order of companies or landowners, terrorizing women and children in the process, as is happening today with the Temucuicui community.

The Chilean authorities do not respect the status of the religious authorities of the Mapuche people; they detain the machi (spiritual guide) and desecrate and destroy sacred symbols such as the Rewe (sacred altar). These acts occur regularly in various Mapuche communities. On December 26th, the Rewe of the Machi Sonia Cheuque, located in Lleupeco in the Padres Las Casas district, was destroyed by police. On November 9th, 2007, the Machi Pascual Catrilaf was detained in his community by police from the 4th Commissary of the Neuve Imperial, located in Region IX; the police destroyed his Kultrun, sacred symbol of the machi. We ask that our religious authorities and the sacred character of their symbols be respected.

Moreover, organizations concerned about the environment have repeatedly denounced the disastrous effects brought about by the 17 water treatment plants in Mapuche communities and 28 landfill sites constructed by public and private entities. Experts on the subject indicate that these facilities do not comply with the necessary standards to avoid harm to the environment and to human health.

List of Advocates Who Support the Dispatch of a Mission to Chile

  1. Werken, Jorge Huenchullan Cayul, Temucuicui Community, Ercilla, Wallmapu
    comunidadtemucuicui@hotmail.com

  2. Lonko, José Osvaldo Cariqueo Saravia, Cacique José Giñon Community, Ercilla, Wallmapu
    josecariqueosaravia@hotmail.com

  3. Lonko, José Diaz Toro, Leon Catrimil Community of Tricauco, Wallmapu
    c.leoncatrimil@hotmail.com

  4. Waikilaf Cadin Calfunao, Juan Paillalef Community, Wallmapu
    comunidadjuanpaillalef@yahoo.com

  5. Lonko, Juan Carlos Curinao Rucal, Community, Huañaco Millao (Wallmapu)

  6. Reynaldo Mariqueo, Mapuche International Link, (United Kingdom), Mapuche@mapuche-nation.org

  7. Jorge Calbucura, Mapuche Documentation Center, Ñuke Mapu (Sweden)
    calbucura@mapuche.info

  8. Miguel Utreras Imilmaqui, Center for Innovative Development (Norway) mail@renu.no

  9. Sara De Witt, Organization of Chilean Political Ex-Prisoners (United Kingdom)
    SaradeWitt@aol.com

  10. Gaston Lion, Belgian-American Indian Committee (Belgium)
    gaston.lion@skynet.be

  11. Marino Busdachin, The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), (The Netherlands)
    unpo@unpo.org

  12. Tomas Condori, Indian Council of South America (Switzerland)
    tcondori@puebloindio.org

  13. Claudio González Penella, Indigenous Memory (Chile)
    c_gonzalez27@yahoo.es

  14. Jaime Valdés, International Defence Council for the Rights of Peoples (Switzerland) jaimevaldes@wanadoo.fr

  15. Lazaro Pary, Tupaj Amaru Indian Movement (Switzerland)
    amaru102@hotmail.com

Mapuche Political Prisoners

  • Lonko, Juana Calfunao Paillalef (Prisoner in the Temuco Women's Prison)

  • Juan Patricio Marileo (Prisoner in the Vilcun Prison)

  • Florencio Jaime Marileo Saravia (Prisoner in the Angol Prison)

  • Luisa Calfunao Paillalef (Prisoner in the Temuco Women's Prison)

  • Werken, Antonio Cadin Huentelao (Prisoner in the Temuco Prison)

  • Juan Carlos Huenulao Lielmil (Prisoner in the Center for Study and Work (“CET”) of Victoria )

  • Lonko, Avelino Meñaco (Prisoner in the Lebu Prison) Pascual Coña Community

_____________________________  

Translated from Spanish by Susanna Bredenberg 

UN Video speech link


Back to top



Mapuche International Link. Copyright © 2002.
For all information relevant to the site, including design and
contact info,
click here