On the occasion of the official visit to the United Nations Organization by the President of the Republic of Chile, His Excellency Mr. Sebastian Piñera, we respectfully request that you consider mediation in order to agree a solution to the current hunger strike of 35 indigenous Mapuche activists confined in various prisons in southern Chile.
His Excellency Ban Ki-MoonSecretary General
United Nations Organization
19th September, 2010.
Your Excellency,
On the occasion of the official visit to the United Nations Organization by the President of the Republic of Chile, His Excellency Mr. Sebastian Piñera, we respectfully request that you consider mediation in order to agree a solution to the current hunger strike of 35 indigenous Mapuche activists confined in various prisons in southern Chile. Of these, 32 have sustained 70 days without food.
The Mapuche hunger strikers demand the right of Mapuche to fair trials, the application of objective and impartial justice and in particular the repeal of the Anti-Terrorist Law.
The reason that the Mapuche are forced into such drastic action is due to the fact that during the last decade Anti-Terrorism Act, No.18.314, "enacted during the Pinochet dictatorship – is only applied to Mapuche political leaders and community members. The repeal of this law is requested by much of the International Human Rights community including the Ethical Commission Against Torture, whose report was discussed by the United Nations Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination in August 2009.
The application of the Anti terrorist law is a violation of the human rights of Mapuche citizens exercising their democratic right to protest, demanding the right to ownership of their ancestral lands and respect for their cultural identity and way of life. The UN Human Rights Council has in several Special Reports, recommended an end to the application of Anti -Terrorist law when applied to the activities, protests and claims of the Mapuche nation.
We are writing to kindly request your mediation as the political and territorial rights, autonomy and self-determination demanded by the Mapuche nation are enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the General Assembly on 13 September 2007 which included the vote of the Chilean State.
We would be most grateful for your intercession with the President of Chile to end the application of the anti-terrorist law against the political representatives of the Mapuche nation. Today the lives of 35 of these activists is endangered. We request your mediation in order to prevent their deaths. We also ask that you intercede with the President of Chile for the initiation of a dialogue with the Mapuche hunger strikers, with traditional Mapuche authorities as well as the representative organizations of the Mapuche nation.
We appreciate your consideration of this request.
Jorge Calbucura
Centro de Documentación Mapuche Ñuke Mapu
Maria Prästgårdsgatan 31. Estocolmo, Suecia
Gaston Lion
Comite Belga-America India
Rue du Fond des Cuves 19,
B-5190 Jemeppe sur Sambre, Bélgica.
Reynaldo Mariqueo
Enlace Mapuche Internacional
6 Lodge Street, Bristol BS1 5LR, Reino Unido
Carlos Contreras Painemal
Coordinador Centro de Documentación Mapuche, Rucadugun – Alemania
Im Mehringhof, Aufgang 3, 5.Stock, Gneisenaustr.2a, 10 961 Berlin
Rayen Flor Calfunao Paillalef
Defensor Jurídico Autónomo Mapuche (DAM)
Rue de Montchoisy 56,1207 Geneva, Suiza.
