Public Declaration on Mapuche Political Prisoners

Wednesday 17 April 2002

In view of the Events Calendar that have occurred in the communities of Traiguén in conflict, the members of the Hogar Universitario Mapuche in Temuko declare the following to regional and national public opinion:

We Mapuche students reject and condemn the unjust imprisonment of our lonkos Aniceto Norin and Pascual Pichún, as well as the recent detentions of brothers Pascual and Rafael Pichún Collonao, for the following reasons:

1.- Both traditional leaders were detained under the groundless suspicion that they had committed the crime of arson against a property owned by the former minister of state Juan Agustín Figueroa. furthermore, both leaders are being tried by virtue of the Anti-terrorist Law, a body of legislation created by the military dictatorship, which is a particularly serious infringement of the human rights and the guarantees of due process of numerous Chilean and Mapuche political prisoners.

2.- For its part, the detention of the brothers Rafael and Pascual Pichún last Saturday suffers from the same irregularities that have characterised the prosecution of the leaders mentioned above, since after the burning of a forestry truck that occurred in the proximity of the Nancahue Estate, the police proceeded to carry out a violent raid on the community where the two brothers live, accusing them totally arbitrarily of the Events Calendar that had occurred. It goes without saying that this police operation was carried out with extreme violence and in the presence of terrified women, elderly people and children.

3.- All the facts mentioned, which have led to the imprisonment of our brothers in Traiguén prison, are just the sorry and visible face of a "political measure" implemented by the Chilean government to suffocate the territorial struggle of these communities, to frighten our whole people and to guarantee the success of the investments of the forestry company owners.

In view of all the above, we Mapuche students also demand that the authorities immediately release our detained brothers, who are clearly the victims of the perpetrators of a self-inflicted crime, that is to say, of a set-up planned and executed to incriminate these Mapuche community members by paramilitary groups opposed to our people.

Finally, and as well as denouncing these facts, we call upon our Mapuche brothers of different organisations and sectors to join forces and to repudiate these facts, which systematically affect our whole nation.

FREEDOM TO THE MAPUCHE POLITICAL PRISONERS

From Temuko, Mapuche Territory

HOGAR UNIVERSITARIO MAPUCHE

Translated by Leslie Ray