|
MAPUCHE INTERNATIONAL LINK |
Demonstration Held in London to Express Solidarity with Mapuche Political Prisoners
Held : Chilean Embassy in London, Devonshire St. London W1G 7DS
Date : Friday, January 25, 2008
Time : 12 -14 Hours
Mapuche International Link is joining the call made by the International Project for Human Rights in London to demonstrate in front of the UK Chilean Embassy. The demonstration will take effect on Friday, January 25, 2008 at 12-14 Hrs, to show solidarity with the Mapuche political prisoners, in particular Patricia Troncoso, who today reaches her 106th day of hunger strike.
Organizations sympathetic to human rights and indigenous peoples of the world have been expressing their indignation at the Chilean government for the racist and discriminatory treatment shown to the Mapuche political prisoners. Despite protests of nationally and internationally human rights organizations, the Chilean government is still using repressive legislation - introduced by the dictatorship of General Pinochet - which contravenes international standards concerning detainees' rights to a due process.
The protests have increased since the humiliating and degrading treatment used by the Chilean authorities against Patricia Troncoso. Patricia is incommunicado and, according to the priest of the Catholic Church, Jose Luis Ysem, is also bound by her hands and feet. The Chilean Ministry of Justice gave the order to apply methods that violate international law, such as the use of force in response to Patricia's refusal to swallow food; the detainee has been tranquillized so that she may be given intravenous feeding by a team of doctors, unknown to her and her doctor. Patricia is kept in complete isolation; her own family and doctor have been prevented from visiting her.
Doctor Ravanal, who examines Patricia Troncoso, said on January 18th that after 100 days of fasting, the extension of her current condition inevitably means "a progressive and rapid increase in the risk of death." He adds: "As a doctor, I appeal to the humanity in all those who have the ability to collaborate and assist with in order to save the life of Patricia Troncoso, beyond any limitation in morality and ethics, but by the supreme value of life."
Peaceful protests in Chile have been violently disrupted by the police, who have arrested indiscriminately, including the elderly, women and children. On January 21 a Mapuche religious ceremony taking place in front of Chillan Hospital , where Patricia is being detained, was interrupted by the police, violating the right of the Mapuche to hold their own cultural religious rites.
The protests of Mapuche organizations and communities in the Araucanía region have escalated following the assassination of 22-year-old student Matias Catrileo, who was shot in the back with a submachine gun by a policeman during a peaceful demonstration for the recovery of lands usurped from a Mapuche community located in the vicinity of Vilcún, Region IX. Faced with protests by the Mapuche communities, the Chilean government has responded with the militarization of the entire ancestral territory of the Mapuche nation. The Mapuche territory was occupied by the Chilean state over hundred years ago and today the Mapuche people are severe punished for trying to regain their lands and peoples rights.
Mapuche International Link
