Support the Mapuche, Indigenous people of Chile

Bristol, 11 September, 2001

Mapuche International Link invites organisations and individuals to join us in a picket outside the Foreign Office and Downing Street on the 12 September 2001.

1. From 8.45 to 10:30 am -at: Foreign Office, King Charles Street (off Whitehall). Nearest Tube: Westminster.

The Confederation of British Industry will meet the Chilean President Ricardo Lagos. Jack Straw will meet Mr. Lagos at 9.45 a.m.

2. Meet outside Downing St. picket 4.45 to 6.00pm. Nearest tube: Westminster. Tony Blair has a scheduled meeting with the Chilean president at 5.00pm.

The Mapuche people, the indigenous people of Chile, are at this present moment being incarcerated and criminalised at the mere mention of land rights. Over a thousand Mapuche people have been detained in the past two years, and hundreds are dealing with court proceedings mainly to do with land rights.

They have been denied the status of political prisoners and there are many allegations of physical and mental abuse in the prisons.

Private companies continually use the judicial machinery and use their influence within both the political power process and the legal framework of the state to criminalise the Mapuche movement. They accuse the Mapuche of “illegal association, of stealing, of conspiracy, of criminal damage”, etc. A mere declaration of intention to reclaim territory on the part of the Mapuche communities can mean a legal injunction against them. This can be seen clearly in the case of the 5 members of the Domingo Trangol community in the Victoria region, where three of the members are being detained, while the others are under house arrest and are forbidden to take part in meetings thereby denying them the right of association and freedom of expression.

The Mapuche people have been campaigning for constitutional recognition by the Chilean authorities for decades.

The Mapuche have these demands to make from the Chilean Government:

• The release of all Mapuche political prisoners.
  

• The recogniation of Convention 169 of the ILO (International Labour Organisation) which allows basic rights to indigenous peoples. Including land rights and use of their own resources.
  

• The de-militarization of the Mapuche territories.
  

• The implementation of an independent and impartial judicial system.
  

• The recognition within the Chilean constitution of the Mapuche people as a people in their own right.
  

• The right to self determination in our ancestral land.

For decades we have witnessed the deforestation and the implementation of development projects which ecologically devastate our land, and are carried out without our consent and in violation of the current Indian Law. Such projects as the building of the Ralko dam in the Biobio River and the construction of highways are set to destroy our land and our way of life and the eco system that affects us all.

Only last week, for the first time in the History of the Catholic’s church involvement in Chile, the Bishops of Araucania (the ancestral land of the Mapuche in Southern Chile) have officially demanded constitutional recognition of the Mapuche people within Chile. Finally the Catholic Church in Chile has stated: “ Its about more than just formal agreements, its about moving forward together towards constitutional recognition and the respect of the Mapuche people as a cultural community, not only on the basis of fact but also as an inherent right as a people ”.

The Mapuche people are appealing to the international community to recognise their land rights. The Chilean government is one of the few governments in the world that does not recognise the existence of its own indigenous peoples and does not ratify Convention 169 of the ILO (International labour Organisation).

If you can’t make it to the pickets, please write to Tony Blair expressing your concern about the above issues.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Mapuche International Link

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