[IPSM] Indigenous Mapuche Bring Human Rights Case to OAS

[Aziz Choudry]

Indigenous Mapuche Bring Human Rights Case to OAS:
Chilean Government Used Anti-terrorism Law to Imprison
Mapuche Leader Involved in Dam Struggle

For Immediate Release: 	June 6, 2005
Contact:     Sergio Fuenzalida 011-56-09-4199617

While Chilean ex-Minister of the Interior, Jose Miguel Insulza, assumes
the post of Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General,
Chile’s indigenous Mapuche bring their case to that same organization,
accusing the Chilean government of human rights violations. Having
exhausted resources for the Mapuche leader’s defense, the denunciation 
is
being presented before the OAS with the objective of restoring the honor
of the Mapuche authority, and securing an end to the use of 
antiterrorism
legislation against the Mapuche people.

The case presented before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
(CIDH) of the OAS highlights the Nov. 2004 sentencing of Mapuche leader
and public figure Víctor Ancalaf as a result of the conflict over the
installation of a hydroelectric dam in the Bio Bio region of Chile.

Ancalaf was condemned by Chilean courts to 5 years and a day with no
possibility of parole, based on accusations of having perpetrated
incendiary attacks on trucks and a backhoe that were used in the
construction of the Ralco Hydroelectric Power Station of the 
transnational
corporation, ENDESA, in September of 2001 and March of 2002.

The denunciation before the CIDH is brought on behalf of 71 leaders of
different Mapuche organizations and territorial identities. The majority
of the organizations are associated with the Coordinating Group of
Organizations and Territorial Identities. The groups are pursuing 
redress
within the OAS because of discriminatory processes within the Chilean
justice system, including the use of the anti-terrorism legislation (Law
18.314) and the withholding of due process.

The case of Ancalaf is symbolic in that it reflects the persecution on 
the
part of the Chilean government that continues to victimize the Mapuche
people and their leaders through repression, judicial attacks
andcriminalization of their demands for human rights, argue the
organizations.

The case of Ancalaf is also supported by a human rights legal team
including the Center for Social Legal Studies and Indigenous 
Documentation
of the University of Art and Social Sciences (ARCIS), Indigenous People’s
Rights Watch, and Codepu of Valdivia, among others. The denunciation
categorizes Ancalaf’s case as a “grave violation of the Inter-American
Convention on Human Rights on the part of the Chilean government which 
is
responsible for the summons, trial, and later sentencing of Mapuche 
leader
Víctor Manuel Ancalaf Llaupe.”

For Ancalaf, together with the Mapuche organizations, the denunciation 
is
being made because the anti-terrorism legislation, which has repeatedly
been applied against the Mapuche, presents a permanent threat to the
Mapuche people. “What we’re seeking from the Commission, is the clearing
of Ancalaf’s name and restoration of his honor as a Mapuche authority
unjustly condemned by the Chilean government utilizing imprudent
legislation, completely disproportionate to the accusations being made,”
said Alfredo Seguel, working group leader of the Coordinating Group of
Organizations and Territorial Identities. “The denunciation also demands
that the Chilean government terminate all current prosecutions of 
Mapuche
activists accused under this unjust anti-terrorist legislation.”

Related information: http://www.mapuexpress.net/?act=publications&id=145



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