[asia-apec 1068] Chile - State Tries Indigenous Women

[Gatt Watchdog]

IPS
Subject: CHILE: Elderly Indigenous Women Tried by Military Courts

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Title: RIGHTS- CHILE: Elderly Indigenous Women Tried by Military Courts

SANTIAGO, Mar 29 (IPS) - Environmental groups protested Monday
against the military trial of two elderly Pehuenche indigenous
women, criticising the government for defending former dictator
Augusto Pinochet while neglecting human rights at home.

The Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts
classed the trial of Berta and Nicolasa Quintreman in the Military
court of Chillan, 403 kilometres south of Santiago, as
unacceptable.

These two sisters, both aged over 70 years-old, were with a
group of Pehuenche residents of the upper Biobio river who oppose
the building of the Ralco hydroelectric plant by the Spanish-
Chilean Endesa company.

''It is unacceptable for the military courts, with their sorry
history under the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-90), to be trying
two old Pehuenche women for the alleged crime of ''physically
abusing Caribineer officers,'' said the Observatory.

The Pehuenche, a branch of the Mapuche ethnic group, have
ancestral lands in the upper reaches of the Biobio, the biggest
river in southern Chile, some 500 kilometres from the capital,
home to the aracucaria tree - a native conifer known as Pehuen in
the indigenous language.

The action against the Quintreman sisters and other Pehuenches
was based on incidents which took place in February, when
indigenous people and ecologists blocked the access road to Ralco,
producing confrontations with the Caribineers.

The Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts is
part of the Biobio Action Group (GABB), a network of social and
ecological organisations opposed to construction at Ralco, as the
dam here would mean the flooding of Pehuenche lands.

Campaign leaders Lucio Cuenca and Luis Mariano Rendon said the
military tribunal's accusation is ''a fresh manoeuvre from a
government which aims to delegitimise the peaceful defense of
indigenous territory and the environmental heritage of all
Chileans.''

The Eduardo Frei administration supports construction at Ralco,
citing development of the energy network, while environmentalists
oppose this as they believe it would irreversibly destroy a unique
ecological habitat.

GABB classed the dam project as ethnocide, stating it attacks
the ancestral culture of the Pehuenche, and accused the government
of favouring hydroelectric consortia instead of seeking
alternatives for development of the nation's energy sector.

''It seems worrying to us that the government of Chile today
not only stands up internationally to defend the dictator who
violated human rights in our country, but also puts into practice
much the same repressive methods as were used in the past by their
protege,'' said Cuenca and Rendon.

Pinochet, 83 years-old and now senator for life, has been under
arrest since October 1998 in London, with his fate in the hands of
Britain's Home Secretary Jack Straw who is to decide on his
possible extradition to stand trial in Spain.

The Frei administration has stood by Pinochet since he was
arrested, citing the principles of sovereignty - which they claim
should give Pinochet diplomatic immunity, and the territorial
nature of justice - which should prevent him from standing trial
abroad.

During his regime, Pinochet gave the military courts extensive
powers to deal with cases of civilians accused of ''mistreating''
police officers physically or verbally.

Environmentalists claimed the military courts ''used yesterday
to lock up thousands of Chileans'' are today ''the instrument to
persecute the Pehuenche and the ecological organisations.''

Cuenca and Rendon similarly stated the conflict over Ralco will
continue to worsen as the authorities are allowing Endesa to go
ahead with the major works of the dam ''in an evident policy of
what is done cannot be undone.''

According to them, work should be stopped until the National
Corporation of Indigenous Development can bring an end to the
conflict over land substitution and the relocation of Pehuenche
families.

Eight indigenous families, out of a total of 81, are opposed to
leaving their land. According to GABB, most of the Pehuenche who
did agree to give up their land to Endesa were either tricked or
subjected to various forms of extortion.

The Environmental Observatory demanded the government clarify
''whether or not it respects the legislation the Chilean State
itself has produced to protect the land, culture and environmental
heritage of the indigenous people.''

       [c] 1999, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)