CHILE: MAPUCHE INDIANS DENOUNCE GOVERNMENT BEFORE U.N. AFTER VIOLENT PROTESTS.

By Eric P. Martin [The author is a free-lance journalist in Santiago, Chile]

Following protests July 25 and 26 in the Chilean city of Temuco, 660 km south of Santiago, that resulted in violent clashes between Mapuche Indians and police, a delegation of Mapuche leaders denounced the Chilean government for human rights abuses before the UN Human Rights Commission.

Mapuche representatives accused Chilean authorities of facilitating the theft and exploitation of ancestral lands, persecuting the Mapuche community, and denying legal protection to the Mapuches.

The Mapuche, the original inhabitants of Chile's southern lakes district and parts of neighboring Argentina, have been at odds with the government and forestry companies since Chile's former military government ceded 48,000 hectares of Mapuche land to local and transnational corporations. The return of these lands is a principal demand of Mapuche organizations.

Two Mapuche organizations presented the indigenous group's case July 27 in Geneva, Switzerland: the London-based Mapuche International Link (MIL) and the Consejo de Todas las Tierras, Chile's largest Mapuche organization.

Todas las Tierras delegate Nilo Cayuqueo accused Chile's government of violating the rights of all of the country's indigenous groups.

"Since democracy returned in 1990, succeeding administrations have failed to recognize the rights of indigenous nations such as the Mapuche, Aymara, Atacameno, and the Rapa Nui of Easter Island," Cayuqueo said.

A key issue in the meeting with UN officials was what Mapuche leaders say is a campaign of persecution of the Mapuche movement by Chilean authorities. MIL representative Reynaldo Mariqueo said Chilean police carry out arbitrary raids and arrests of Mapuches, including women, children, and the elderly, and subject detained Mapuches to "cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment."

The escalation of searches and arrests has been at the root of recent clashes between Mapuche activists and police. Todas las Tierras Werken Aucan Huilcaman said his organization took to the streets on July 25 to protest a raid of Todas las Tierras offices July 20. "Werken" means spokesperson in Mapudungun, the native Mapuche language.

Huilcaman--a Todas las Tierras founder who has worked on human and indigenous rights commissions for the Organization of American States (OAS) and UN--called the raid illegal because "police showed no warrant and because the judges who participated in the raid were involved in the usurpation of Mapuche lands."

The warrant Mapuche leaders later saw was signed by judges whose families are connected to forestry companies on the disputed ancestral lands, Huilcaman said. He added that police even raided private homes in the Mapuche community.

Mapuche protest use of national security law

An estimated 1,000 activists participated the first day of protests in the largely indigenous city of Temuco, making it the largest Mapuche demonstration in nine years. Todas las Tierras organized the event and another nine Mapuche groups participated.

Though it started as a peaceful march, the protest turned violent when about 500 activists took over the office of Region IX Gov. Berta Belmar. Protesters also blocked the doors of City Hall, where some Mapuche activists engaged in direct confrontation with Carabineros (militarized police). When 300 riot police arrived at the scene, demonstrators spread throughout the downtown area, converting the protest into a small-scale riot.

Belmar condemned the disturbances and pledged that the government would take legal action against instigators, including Huilcaman.

Police arrested 125 demonstrators during the protests. Police retaliated against protesters by again raiding the Todas las Tierras headquarters and arresting 20 people who had taken refuge inside. Huilcaman criticized the arrests, saying they were "clearly meant to intimidate and threaten."

During the second day of protests, activists said that six Mapuche leaders had been handed over to the military prosecutor's office for assaulting police officers the day before. The crime falls within the jurisdiction of the military courts since the Carabineros, Chile's national police force, is a branch of the armed forces.

Authorities threatened to prosecute the activists under the national security law (Ley de Seguridad de Estado), a law that Huilcaman said the Carabineros have used as an instrument for their persecution of the Mapuche movement. Introduced by the military government of Gen. Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), it is the same law that gave security forces the power to arrest political opponents during the dictatorship.

Another six Mapuche leaders charged under the national security law requested asylum in the Swedish Embassy in Santiago on Aug. 8. In a letter to Swedish Ambassador Arne Rodin, the Mapuches said they were subject to "massive human rights violations in which Mapuche leaders have been persecuted by police, judicial, and political figures."

By using the national security law to prosecute the Mapuche, Huilcaman said, the government is infringing upon at least six universally recognized human rights. "The constitutionally recognized freedom of expression is being violated, as well as the right of free association recognized by the international community and the Chilean Constitution," he said.

Since international law is clear on these issues, Mapuche leaders have turned to the international community.

The Mapuche leaders who took refuge in the Swedish Embassy said government penal reforms applied in a handful of regions prejudice them. The new penal code was a key point in the Todas las Tierras declaration before the UN Human Rights Commission. Huilcaman said that it discriminates against the Mapuches because it is established "according to the premise that there are only Chileans and there is only one language and one culture in Chile."

At the UN meeting, Cayuqueo also demanded a review of the property titles of disputed forestry lands. Mapuche leaders say that the land ceded to transnational forestry companies during the Pinochet regime was taken illegally. During the two governments preceding Chile's 1973 military coup, Presidents Eduardo Frei Montalva (1964-1970) and Salvador Allende (1970-1973) gave Mapuche communities ownership of some 48,000 ha of their ancestral lands. The military government later annulled the titles and handed the property over to forestry companies, among them the Swiss-Chilean conglomerate Migalemu, US-based Simpson Paper Company, and Japan's Mitsubishi.

Huilcaman said the governments following the transition to democracy made only weak attempts at returning these lands. President Patricio Aylwin (1990-1994), the first elected president after Pinochet stepped down, gave the Mapuche the opportunity to purchase the disputed lands. "The grave problem with this," Huilcaman said, "is that it is based on market criteria and not the community's rights."

Indigenous leaders promise 50-year struggle

Mapuche activists have taken highly criticized measures to reclaim these lands, drawing media attention in takeovers of company-owned fundos or estates. On July 25, several Chilean legislators proposed a law that would increase penalties for takeovers of lands and buildings to five years in prison. Still, the more radical Mapuche organization Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco took over the Porvenir fundo near Chol Chol on Aug. 6.

Huilcaman said the land conflict is at an important moment because the 20-year-old trees on the disputed lands are nearing their harvest time. He outlined a program for the Mapuche movement that corresponds to the phases of the lumber harvest. The Mapuche communities, he said, would interfere with cultivation of ancestral lands when the companies try to harvest and transport lumber and again if they later try to plant new trees.

"Therefore, we have a struggle planned that could last 50 years," Huilcaman said. "The question is, are these businesses willing to fight with the Mapuche community for the next 50 years?"