Press Release

Chile: Trial of Mapuche leaders accused of illicit terrorist association

The Observatory (OMCT-FIDH) sent an observer mission to the trial in Temuco

Geneva- Paris, 12 July 2005

The Observatory for the Protection of Defenders of Human Rights, a joint programme with the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) have sent a mission to Temuco, Chile to observe the oral trial against the lonkos (traditional Mapuche authorities) Pascual Pichún Paillalao and Anceto Norín Catriman and another fourteen Mapuche community members accused of crimes of illicit terrorist association which has been underway since 13th June 2005 in an open court criminal tribunal. With a mandate from the Observatory, Dr Luis Rodríguez-Piñero Royo, lecturer of Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program at the University of Arizona and expert in the rights of indigenous people within the international system, is currently in Temuco with the aim of evaluating the due respect of processional international standards in the trial. The accused are being tried for crimes of terrorism by virtue of their alleged membership of the Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM) and in relation to various acts of protest, including fires and damage to property carried out between 1997 and 2001. The accused face serious jail sentences in accordance with the Antiterrorist Law (Law 18.314), which has raised protests as much on a national as on an international level. This is the second trial issued against these community members in relation to these issues. An earlier trial was acquitted due to lack of evidence by the same tribunal in November 2004, but was annulled by the Supreme Court in a highly questionable ruling.

The lonkos Pascual Pichún and Aniceto Norín are serving sentences since April 2004 in Traiguén prison, charged in the first trials in the framework of antiterrorist law against the Mapuche leaders in March and April 2003. In this instance they were acquitted, but Chile 's Supreme Court overturned the verdict and later, in a second trial which took place in September 2003, they were condemned to 5 years and one day for the alleged crime of making terrorist threats. Since then various sentences against Mapuche leaders have been handed down within the framework of said law.

The application of the Antiterrorist law in the trials brought against Mapuche leaders in relation to territorial claims, and also the application of special processional methods such as the declarations of the so-called 'faceless witnesses' have been denounced by diverse international bodies. In 2003 the Special Rapporteur to the United Nations on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Mr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen, explicitly recommended that "measures are taken to avoid the criminalization of legitimate actions of protest or social demands" of the Mapuche people. The same sentiment has been demonstrated by the Committee of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the United Nations in their recent observations on Chile. Similarly it has been highlighted that there are five open cases before the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for violations of due process of Mapuche leaders accused of terrorism.

The Observatory hopes that the Temuco Tribunal adopts a decision in line with the international norms and principles of human rights, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights whose article 14.1 establishes that "all people are equal in front of tribunals and courts of justice". Everyone will have the right to be heard publicly and with due guarantees of a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by the law in the substantiation of any accusation with a penal character formulated against it or determination of their rights or obligations that have a civil character.

The Observatory urges the Chilean government to take timely measures to guarantee, at all times, the physical and psychological integrity and the right to due process to the leaders and the other members of the Mapuche community in a way that, if there is no proof against them, the charges are withdrawn, and they are given their immediate and unconditional freedom and, in cases where their rights have been violated, are awarded adequate compensation. The Observatory considers the Chilean state cannot conform with its international commitments related to due process, without abrogating the antiterrorist legislation from the era of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. This legislation is currently being used in a political manner against activists and defenders of the rights of indigenous people and negates their rights to the correct prosecution procedures.

Translated by Camilla Porter

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