[mobglob-discuss] Mapuches say: Freedom, Choices, not Free Trade!

[ClaudioE.]

Mapuches say: Freedom, Choices, not Free Trade!
Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation meets on 4 - 5 June 2004 in Pucón and
Villarrica



The Mapuche Conflict
A News Digest Of The Mapuche Conflict, With APEC On The Horizon
(May 13, 2004, Ed. Note: In the following article, Kurt Perry, a freelance
journalist working for the Mapuche International Link - MIL -, gives an
update on what is one of the oldest issues in Chile: the conflict between
authorities and the Mapuches, Chile's largest indigenous people.
MIL is a British based international voluntary movement established in 1996
to campaign for social, economic, political and environmental justice for
the indigenous Mapuche peoples of Chile and Argentina. The organization's
work, based on the support and dedication of its volunteers, has the main
goal of helping bring about a just and peaceful resolution to the Mapuche
conflict.)
UN human rights report presented in Geneva
A report presented last April to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights,
covering an official U.N. visit to Chile in July 2003, made extensive
recommendations concerning the human rights of Mapuche communities in Chile.
According to the report presented in Geneva by Rodolfo Stavenhagen, the
United Nation's Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and
fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, "The present situation of
indigenous people in Chile is the outcome of a long history of
marginalization, discrimination and exclusion, mostly linked to various
oppressive forms of exploitation and plundering of their land and resources
that date back to the sixteenth century and continue to this day."
In his report, Stavenhagen concluded that:
Chile's Congress should adopt the proposed constitutional reform in relation
to indigenous matters as soon as possible;
International Labor Organization Convention No. 169, an international treaty
guaranteeing the human rights of indigenous people, should be ratified
promptly;
Protection of human rights should take precedence over private, commercial
and economic interests in a review of legislation that might be in conflict
with the Indigenous Peoples Act;
The government should take into account the proposals contained in the
report by the Historical Truth Commission on needed legal, economic and
cultural changes;
Necessary steps should be taken to set up a national human rights
institution.
Stavenhagen also recommended that urgent attention should be paid to the
prevention and resolution of land conflicts and, moreover, that the Land
Fund should be expanded and made more flexible.
In a damning criticism of President Ricardo Lagos' administration, and
referring to the detention of Mapuche leaders under the Counter-Terrorism
Act brought into force under the Pinochet military dictatorship, Stavenhagen
said, "Under no circumstances should legitimate protest activities or social
demands by indigenous organizations and communities be outlawed or
penalized."
He added that, "Charges for offences in other contexts (such as terrorist
threat and criminal association) should not be applied to acts related to
the social struggle for land and legitimate indigenous complaints."
The Chilean media was also criticized. The report said that "during his
visit, (to Chile) the Special Rapporteur observed how the media deal with
the topic of past violations of human rights in Chile, but pay little
attention to indigenous people's human rights."
Mapuche solidarity organizations throughout Chile and overseas broadly
welcomed the findings of the Special Rapporteur and urged the Lagos
government to implement the various changes highlighted by the report.
Testimony to the U.N. from family of Mapuche activist killed by Carabineros
In Geneva, on April 8, the father of Edmundo Alex Lemun Saavedra - the
Mapuche activist shot and killed in November 2002 by a Carabinero officer -
gave testimony to the sixtieth session of the U.N. Commission on Human
Rights.
Edmundo Lemun Necule denounced the "extrajudicial execution" of his son and
accused Chilean authorities of a cover-up, claiming the officer responsible
for his son's death had escaped punishment. He appealed to the international
community to "participate in the search for a solution to the human rights
problems of the indigenous peoples of Chile."
Activists incensed by APEC meeting on ancestral Mapuche land
On April 20 Mapuche organizations based in Canada issued a press release
condemning Chile's decision by to host a meeting of trade ministers on
ancestral Mapuche land.
Chile is hosting an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in June
in Pucon and Villarica, Region IX, ahead of a leaders' summit in November.
President Ricardo Lagos has reportedly said the meeting in June is to
discuss the feasibility of linking the regional and bilateral free trade
agreements and to help revitalize the stalled World Trade Organization talks
on global trade.
Mapuche leaders are incensed because they believe the meeting is designed to
benefit large multi-national corporations to the detriment of the
environment, human rights and the struggle for respect and recognition of
the social and cultural diversity of indigenous peoples. In recent years,
several disputes between Mapuche communities and large multi-national
corporations have resulted in unfavorable outcomes for the Mapuches.
According to Victor Gavilan, a member of the Mapuche Nation Support
Committee in Calgary, "the history of Pucon and Villarica is a history of
the plunder and encroachment of Mapuche ancestral territory. From the
colonization, relocation and expulsion of Mapuche population of this area,
it was possible to reproduce the infamous reservation system."
Many of the countries participating in the June meeting have a history of
human rights abuse, but the issue of human rights is not believed to feature
on the agenda.
Benetton land dispute with Mapuche
It was reported on April 19 that Benetton, the Italian owned corporate
giant, had brought a lawsuit against a Mapuche family in Patagonia,
Argentina.
According to the report, Atilio Curiñanco and his wife Rosa Nahuelquir
requested permission in early 2002 to start a family business on a
seventeen-acre plot called Santa Rosa, nearby to Benetton owned properties.
The family received verbal permission from the relevant authority, then
moved in and started farming the land.
But just two months later, Benetton claimed the land for himself and began
legal proceedings against the family. The family was subsequently evicted
and their property and belongings were seized.
The property has since remained unoccupied as the Mapuche family seeks legal
rights to the land. In recent years there have been several accusations
against Benetton, the largest landowner in Argentina, claiming the company
has forced several Mapuche communities from their ancestral lands.
SOURCE: UNHCHR.ORG, MAPUCHE-NATION.ORG
By Kurt Perry (kurtperry at hotmail.com)
*********************
A brief history of the Mapuche people
The Mapuche People are a society that has existed over thousands of years,
with their own cosmovision, language, way of life and organisation; they
developed as a free, independent and sovereign Nation, living in a large
area of the territories that are known today as Chile and Argentina. They
were the only original people in America that were able to successfully
resist the invasion of the Spanish crown for over 300 years, between the
16th and early 19th centuries.
Once the Chilean and Argentine states had been formed, after 1810, following
independence from Spain, various failed attempts were made to invade the
Mapuche territory. These actions finally paid off at the end of the 19th
century after a brutal war, following which the Mapuche were transformed
into an oppressed, colonised and impoverished ethnic-national minority,
subjected to a system of domination through the imposition of a nation
state, expressed in all spheres: political, economic, social, cultural,
religious and ideological.
On the Chilean side alone, from 1881 until the beginning of the 20th
century, the state plundered 95% of the historical territory of the Original
Mapuche Nation, depriving them of 9,500,000 hectares of their territory. A
very similar process occurred in Argentina.
In the early 20th century, following these invasions into Mapuche territory,
the states of Chile and Argentina agreed a new colonialist policy along with
European States offering incentives to various European settlers, mainly in
the south, the result of which was the arrival of thousands of "settlers",
mainly from Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Holland, among others, who
occupied huge swathes of Mapuche land without payment of any kind.
Today, most of these lands are in the possession of major economic groups,
such as forestry, fishing, mining, oil and hydroelectric companies, huge
tourist projects or large estates owned by the descendants of European
colonists now running enormous transnational companies.
In their just struggle to recover their territory and dignity, as well as in
the exercising of their political, civil and social rights, the Mapuche
People are the victims of constant, systematic and planned violations of
their human rights.This is expressed through the use of police aggression
aimed at imprisoning those who take action and thwarting their claims by
using a compliant legal system. In both Chile and Argentina, the Mapuche
People are also the victims of the plundering of their identity and
resources by large economic groups, who are actually the real powers in
close alliance with and decisively supported by the Chilean and Argentine
states, who, in the name of the dominant economic model, are currently
oppressing all those who defend their rights.
We call upon the Mapuche organisations and territorial entities, the
Indigenous Peoples and Nations, all those people and local and international
social organisations that aspire to creating a just society founded on
respect for life and cultural diversity, to be aware, participate, support
us and denounce this new colonialist imposition, the instrument of which
(APEC) attempts to establish itself as a seed of destruction in the heart of
our territory. We call upon you to act and state your views.

Mapuche Organising Commission - Social Forum and Indigenous Peoples
Co-ordination of Mapuche Organisations and Territorial Entities
E-mail: foromapuche2004 at yahoo.es
http://www.mapuexpress.net/contraapec.htm
Contact us:
Spanish: foromapuche2004 at yahoo.es / coordinacionmapuche at yahoo.es
English: paulhobi at hotmail.com / coordinacionmapuche at yahoo.es
French: alassagne at free.fr / coordinacionmapuche at yahoo.es
Translated by Leslie Ray