Indian prisoners protest Chile's anti-terror law

[struggle4progress]

10 May 2006 21:27:04 GMT

By Fiona Ortiz

SANTIAGO, Chile, May 10 (Reuters) - .. Mapuches Juan Carlos Huenulao and brothers Jaime and Juan Marileo and non-Mapuche activist Patricia Troncoso have been consuming only water and tea for 58 days and are asking for a reduction of their 10-year sentences.

Human rights groups and Indian leaders say Chile's courts used an anti-terrorism law to give the four unfairly harsh punishment for burning commercial forests on land that Indians claim.

"The only way they could prove arson in the courts was using the anti-terrorism law where unidentified witnesses can give testimony and are not cross-examined," Aucan Huilcaman, a leader of the All Earth Council Mapuche group, told Reuters.

Troncoso has become so weak she cannot stand, and she and Juan Marileo are disoriented and may be taken to a hospital on Thursday for closer monitoring, their doctor, Juan Carlos Reinao, told Reuters. But all are insisting on continuing without food, he said ..

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N10196892.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. More about the Pinochet-era law which allowed forestry companies

to go after these citizens:

10-05-2006
Mapuche: Prisoners on Verge of Starving to Death for Cause

~snip~
In addition to denouncing irregularities in the trial against them, the indigenous defendants protested the application of the counter-terrorism law, which was enacted by the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) and modified during the transition to democracy.

This law, which allowed some 100 witnesses to conceal their identity while testifying, has been under fire from national and international organisations, such as Amnesty International, the International Federation of Human Rights, and the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights, through its rapporteur on Indigenous Issues, Rodolfo Stavenhagen.

"The forestry companies engage in self-sabotage to collect insurance and blame the Mapuches," José Cariqueo, spokesman for the political prisoners, told IPS. He was acquitted during the same trial.
(snip/...)

http://www.unpo.org/news_detail.php?arg=37&par=4440

[Judi Lynn]

2. Speaking of (Nixon-Kissinger puppet) Pinochet's unbelievable criminality

PINOCHET CHARGED IN CHILE FOR MURDER OF SECRET POLICE CHEMIST EUGENIO BERRIOS

Case May Reveal Pinochet’s Complicity In The Death Of President Frei Montalva

(May 12, 2006) Judge Alejandro Madrid filed criminal charges against former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet on Wednesday for his role in the 1994 murder case of former secret police chemist Eugenio Berríos. The indictment led to speculation that Pinochet may also be charged in the 1982 death of former Chilean president Eduardo Frei Montalva.

Álvaro Varela, the Frei family attorney, alleged Thursday that Chile’s high Army command was fully informed of the role Pinochet played in Berríos’ kidnapping and death, and that “there is a sequence of events … that indicates that Pinochet gave the order to kill Frei using products manufactured by Berríos. And the next obvious and logical step in this sequence of criminal events was to eliminate Berríos.”

“The Army high command knows exactly what happened to Berríos, and most especially, the order that was given by Pinochet (for his death),” added Varela in an interview on Radio Cooperativa.

Judge Madrid’s investigation has been aided by testimony from three Uruguayan military officials extradited to Chile three weeks ago (ST, April 19), and by the testimony of a former top Chilean military official who recently decided to break his oath of silence and testify against his former boss.

“There are more than enough clues linking (Pinochet) to the kidnapping and homicide of Eugenio Berríos to justify stripping him of his legal immunity,” said Thomás Ehrenfeld, lawyer for the Berríos family.
(snip/...)

http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/index.php?nav=story&story_id=11286&topic_id=1