CHILE: Rights of Mapuche Indians Still Not Ensured
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Saved by 1 people (0 private), first by anonymouse user on 2007-05-25
- Abo46n2 on 2007-05-25 - Tags anthropology , chile , humanrights , indigenous , ksuanth , mapuche , southamerica
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"We regularly receive complaints, and practically every day we hear news about (mistreatment of and discrimination against) Mapuche people," he said during a meeting with the press ahead of Wednesday's release of Amnesty's annual human rights report 2007, which for the fifth year in a row mentions ill-treatment of indigenous people in Chile.
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The Mapuche, who number 600,000 in this country of 15.6 million, are the biggest indigenous group in Chile, making up 87 percent of the total native population. One-fifth of them live in the southern region of Araucanía.
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In the report, the London-based Amnesty states that Carabineros (militarised police) raided the Mapuche indigenous community of Temucuicui in Araucanía in July 2006, purportedly looking for livestock stolen from local ranchers.
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"Police reportedly fired tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition at members of the community, who were unarmed. Several people were injured and a number of homes destroyed. Children were affected by the tear gas and several escaped to nearby hills. Women and children were ill-treated," says the report.
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Above and beyond such incidents, "the state of economic prostration of certain indigenous communities is not seen by the Chilean state as a situation that should cause concern from a human rights perspective," journalist Nibaldo Mosciatti, press officer for the Bío-Bío radio station, told IPS.
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"The power of the logging companies (that have displaced indigenous people from their land in that region) is so strong that in the end you have the sensation and suspicion that part of the state apparatus is placed at their disposal, which is more or less what occurs in the north, where small communities are fighting mining corporations over water rights," said Mosciatti.
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