Sunday, September 30, 2012

Human Rights Observers visit Mapuche on hunger strike in prison in Angol: 'They are dying'

Source: http://www.biobiochile.cl/2012/09/29/observadores-de-dd-hh-visitan-a-mapuche-en-huelga-de-hambre-en-carcel-de-angol-se-estan-muriendo.shtml

Saturday September 29, 2012
Posted by Nicole Villagra | The Information is from the UPI Agency
Picture: Paismapuche.org

A team of human rights observers entered Saturday at Angol prison, in the Araucanía Region, where it detected the precarious state of health of the four young Mapuche who since 33 days maintain a hunger strike.


According to a member of the Ethics Committee against Torture, Manuel Andrade "they look quite exhausted and affected, but are quite intact. They are very young children, they are very thin. They have lost, on average, between 10 to 11 kilos."

For his part, the perception formed by the member of Codepu, Felix Maradiaga, is that "they look quite weak, they have lost muscle mass, they have spells of dizziness, their stomachs hurt a lot. The impression is that they are dying and nobody does anything."

The Human Rights observers met for four hours with Daniel Levinao Montoya, Paulino Levipan Coyan, Rodrigo Montoya Melinao and Eric Montoya Montoya, all members of the community Wente Winkul Mapu of Ercilla.

Levipan Coyan and Montoya Levinao were sentenced to 11 years in prison on charges of attempted murder to police and illegal possession of firearms.


Meanwhile, Montoya Montoya and Montoya Melinao are charged with an alleged attempted murder against a policeman guarding the Centenario estate in August 2011.

The meeting took place in the courtyard of the Mapuche module, where also werkenes and machis conducted a prayer for the youhts.

The member of the Ethical Commission Against Torture said that the strikers demand the annulment of their trials and that there be performed a retrial.

"They say that their judgments are flawed and that they are convicted for carrying out a struggle for the recovery of ancestral lands," he said.

He added that they also request the presence of any governmental authority, an end to to the Anti-Terrorism Act and to the militarization that affects the Mapuche territory.
 

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