Mapuches denounce the Chilean
government at the UN
COMMISSION
ON HUMAN RIGHTS
UNITED NATIONS
FIFTY-FOURTH SESSION
16 March - 24 April 1998
Item
16: Rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic
minorities
Document
presented by International Peace Bureau
Mr. Chairman,
We
thank you for the opportunity of speaking before the Human Rights Commission
today, and are pleased to greet you, the members of the Commission, and
the non-governmental organisations here present.
The
Mapuches are a minority within the Chilean
State, whose rights this State
in practice does not recognise. These include: our linguistic and cultural
rights; our right to a livelihood, for we are deprived of our land; and
even the right to physical integrity. Today, we are suffering brutal repression
as in the worst years of the military dictatorship.
First:
Just over 100 years ago,
the Mapuche nation, spread across the present-day states of Argentina
and Chile,
possessed a vast territory which, on the Chilean side, stretched from
the Bio-Bio River
down to the South. This territory was recognised first by treaties with
the Spanish Crown and then by a series of treaties and parliaments held
with the newly established Republic
of Chile. With the military
defeat of the Mapuche people in 1883, the Chileans took possession of
the Mapuche territory by conquest --territory which the Mapuche communities
still claim as theirs today. Despite the loss of national sovereignty
and annexation to the Republic
of Chile, the Mapuche have
by no means renounced their claims to possession of their land and resources.
Without
the recovery of these lands, and the inalienable right of property over
them, the survival of the Mapuche communities and of their culture is
under threat. Deprived of their lands, the Mapuche communities suffer
growing social instability, with the evident danger of outbreaks of violence,
which could have unforeseeable consequences for the peace and stability
of the Chilean State
as a whole.
We
demand, therefore, the recognition of the fundamental rights of the Mapuche
people, as guaranteed by legal instruments both national and international,
such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
article 1.
Second:
With regard to the situation
of its indigenous population, Chile
in theory made an important step forward with the passing of Law No. 19.253
in 1993. This law establishes norms for the protection, promotion and
development of the indigenous population and recognises a number of basic
rights, such as the condition of the Mapuche as a People. It guarantees
the protection of ownership of land and water, and the introduction of
multi-cultural and bilingual education; it prohibits manifest and malicious
discrimination. By this law, the government must consult the indigenous
peoples of Chile
on all issues affecting them directly. In reality, however, this law is
not implemented. Yet, with the return to democracy and to the rule of
law in Chile,
with the strengthening of its legal institutions and its ratification
of international treaties in the field of human rights, Chile
presents a normal and civilised face to the rest of the world. But, if
we look at recent Events Calendar in Chile,
it becomes clear that the treatment of the Mapuche people has not improved
since the days of Pinochet's dictatorial regime. Injustice, violation
of human rights, usurpation of Mapuche lands, inhuman and humiliating
treatment, discrimination, racism etc. are in Chile
still very much the order of the day.
Between
October 1997 and March 1998, 85 Mapuches, among them women and children,
were detained in Temuco, Malleco,
Arauco, Angol and Santiago.
This was the result of the introduction of the Law of State Security and
the Anti-terrorist law in 5 communes in the Mapuche region. The Chilean
police, on the basis of these legal instruments, carried out an exaggerated
military operation in the entire region. Together with anti-terrorist
forces, and using military vehicles and helicopters, the police patrolled
the area, entering homes, threatening the inhabitants. Detentions took
place at any hour of day or night. According to the statement of one of
the detained, he was held incommunicado for 7 days (whereas Chilean law
stipulates 5 days), during which he suffered inhuman and degrading treatment.
In
a confrontation between security guards of the logging company Arauco
S.A. and Mapuche families from the Pichi Lonkollan and Pilin Mapu communities
of the Lumaco sector of Malleco Province, who were trying to halt the
exploitation of forestland traditionally theirs, 2 trucks were burnt --
incident which, in our view, could hardly constitute a "threat to
the interior security of the state". The reaction of the Chilean
state towards the Mapuche population in this case seems to us to be irresponsible
and totally exaggerated.
Third:
Projects for the improvement
of infrastructures, such as the building of new roads and dams, are being
carried out without the prior consent of the communities concerned, in
violation of the Indigenous Law No. 19.253 of 5. October 1993. Not only
has the Chilean government not implemented this Indigenous Law, due, it
says, to a "lack of economic resources" (at the very moment
in which Chile
is buying weapons worth hundreds of millions of Dollars), but it has manifestly
violated it. For example, the imminent construction of a series of hydroelectric
power stations in the Bio-Bio river in the Mapuche-Pewenche region, without
the consent of the communities affected, is in direct contradiction with
Article 13 of the Indigenous Law, which provides that "Indigenous
lands, as national interest demands, shall enjoy the protection of this
law. They shall not be alienated, seized, nor acquired by limitation,
except between communities or indigenous persons belonging to the same
ethnic group". A large number of indigenous communities are facing
such situations, due to the implementation of a number of mega-projects
such as the Coast Road,
the Temuco By Pass, urban expansion, exploitation of forests, privatisation
of coastal areas and their waters etc. All these projects, far from benefiting
Chile's
most needy, plunge them ever deeper into poverty, leading to enormous
social and cultural problems within our people. We need hardly mention
the disastrous environmental consequences of the above projects.
We
should like to make it absolutely clear that the Mapuche people are not
opposed to progress, but want fair, sustainable and harmonious development,
with full respect of their rights and ancestral values, and a development
process from which they are not absolutely excluded.
We
believe that the recognition of cultural diversity in Chile
will mark the beginning of a historic reparation which today the indigenous
peoples are anxiously awaiting, and which sooner or later the Chilean
State will have to consider.
For only in this way will a solid base for coexistence with the original
inhabitants of the country be created. Our demands are not of a violent
nature, but are based on full respect of the Chilean legal order, which
includes the norms of the common law which traditionally governed the
Mapuche people, reserving for ourselves the right to self-determination,
as the basis for the protection and development of the Mapuche in their
ancestral territory.
We
demand also the ratification of ILO Convention 169 by Chile,
as this is one of the few texts, if not the only text, which recognises
the inalienable rights of indigenous peoples.
We
thank you.
Reynaldo Mariqueo
Internationl Coordinator
Mapuche Inter-regional Council
|
Luis Llanquilef
European Coordinator
Coordination Arauco |
Geneva, 30th March, 1998
