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dam-l (Fwd) indigenous protests in SA
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 17:28:16 -0700
From: aleta@irn.org (Aleta Brown)
To: irn-biobio@igc.org
CHIP News for October 13, 1998
>HEADLINE: THE DAY OF INDIGENOUS INDIGNATION
>Native Peoples March Against Dia De La Raza Commemorations
>SOURCE: EL MERCURIO
>SOURCE: LA TERCERA
>TEXT: Indigenous groups from around the nation marched Monday
>and voiced opposition to the Dia de la Raza celebrations, which
>officially mark the arrival of Europeans to the continent.
> Led by Nicolosa Quintraman, a Pehuenche organizer and
>unofficial leader of the eight families opposed to the construction of
>power company Endesa's US$500 million Ralco dam project in the
>predominantly Pehuenche territory of Alto Bio Bio, marchers peacefully
>winded their way through the downtown Santiago streets to Cerro Huelen
>(Santa Lucia) after gathering at the Plaza Italia.
> Outside of denouncing the official veneration of the 506th
>anniversary of the start of the Spanish conquest of the Americas,
>march leaders said that all indigenous cultures in the country are
>under siege from government and private industry projects such as
>the construction of the Ralco dam. The creation of the dam would
>flood 600 hectares of traditional Pehuenche land.
> "I am here to defend my land. I am Pehuenche, born and
>raised. Land for Pehuenches has no price, but the government does
>not understand because it is made up ofhuincsa [non-indigenous
>people]," Quintraman said.
> Aucan Huilcaman, president of the Temuco branch of the land
>council Todas las Tierras, admitted to modest legal advances in
>indigenous rights, but said that they were "not sufficient."
> "In Mapuche territory, there are currently 21 international
>forestry companies and all the Mapuche mobilizations in the south
>are against these companies. They do not understand, but they have
>committed serious errors in acquiring our land," Huilcaman said. The
>government must grant greater autonomy to the Mapuche community, allowing
>it to determine the fate of its own lands, he said.
> In Regions VII and IX, the two regions with the highest
>concentration of indigenous populations and the sites of the latest
>round of conflict, protesters also calmly took to the streets, calling
>for an end to October 12 as a national holiday. The holiday, march
>organizers from Temuco explained, represents more than half a milennium
>of poverty and oppression.
> Tensions in the area have flared as a number of Pehuenche
>activists and indigenous rights sympathizers have stormed
>government buildings, including the Temuco offices of the National
>Indigenous Development Board (Conadi), and been carted away to jail
>by local police.
> In the Arauco province, Region VIII, Mapuche leaders held a
>traditional indigenous religious ceremony nguillatun, praying for the
>return of their rights over their land and an end to the woeful economic
>conditions that currently plague several indigenous communities in the
>nation.
> In the Bio Bio region (Region VIII), Pehuenche families opposed
>to the Ralco dam construction gathered at the Nireco bridge, the
>entrance to the proposed dam site, and held peaceful protests.
> Chile's indigenous population, according to the 1992 national
>census, numbers almost 1 million, with roughly 35.5 percent living
>below the poverty line.
Chile Information Project
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Aleta Brown
Campaign Associate
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94703 USA
Phone: 1.510.848.1155
Fax: 1.510.848.1008
email: aleta@irn.org
http://www.irn.org