Letter from a Chilean Mother

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Monday October 30, 2006 12:16 by F.E.M. - F.E.M.

Help her son, write!

Please let this be known: People are still dying in Chile for fighting for their basic human rights.
Waikilaf has been in jail for over 2 months now. He was not convicted and does not await a trial, much like Owen Rice here in Ireland.
Waikilaf has been tortured. Burns from boiling water can be seen on his back.
He needs your letters to get him out before he is killed.

The Chilean Authorities will have to find an other way than violence to deal with the Mapuche Communities in Southern Chile! Waikilaf Cadin Calfunao, was illegally detained by the Chilean justice (has not been trialled, nor sentenced), and is deprived of his freedom in the “High Security Prison” in Santiago de Chile. Due to this situation he started a hunger strike on the 8th of October.
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MANIFEST-LETTER FROM HIS MOTHER
I, Juana Calfunao Paillalef, Lonko (political leader) of the Juan Paillalef mapuche community, communicate the following:
These politicians who themselves claim to be so efficient, why do they not defend in the same manner the rights of the indigenous Mapuche People?

When the Police of Chile fire their guns kill our brothers by bullets. When the police enter mapuche communities without a legal order or search warrants. Where are these saving socialists?

I make a call to all the women in the world whom have suffered the pain to have a child, I invite them to a solidarity campaign, lets start hunger strikes in the churches, in the embassies, before ‘La Moneda’ palace in Chile, in the tribunals, in the parliament, in the
congress, outside the prison, lets accompany Waikilaf, today it’s my son, tomorrow it can be yours!

Lets protect seeds of resistance, that they will not stop the new generation. “Adelante Hermanos y Hermanas”, don’t fear the system. Go out in the streets!

MARHICHI WEU, MARHICHI WEU!!!
Thanks to you, prison warder of Temuco, who doesn’t think like Mister Cristian Dulanski, Seremi of Justice of Temuco, nor like the corrupt public prosecutor who condemned my son to the subterranean cells of the “High Security Prison”, to an isolation cell, trying to knock down his resistance and to break his spirit. This great human being doesn’t think like them, and
gave me these pictures and other evidences that counter the lies of Dulanski who said that my son didn’t have any wounds.

What do these state bureaucrats think? . They administer justice and the powers of the state in
favor of the big landowners, of the business oligarchies, and to the usurpating foreigners with
their transnational companies.

LONKO JUANA CALFUNAO PAILLALEF
COMUNIDAD JUAN PAILLALEF
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EXAMPLE LETTER:
To whom it may concern:
I NAME from Organisation, function and country write to you as we are concern about the health and the legal procedures involving Waikilaf Cadin Calfunao, whom we know has been in jail in Temuco since the 17 of august 2006.
Our greatest concern is that, as we understand Waikilaf Cadin Calfunao has been on a dry hunger strike (no liquids) since October the 8th, this is due to the fact that he has spent more than 2 months in jail, with out trial, he claims innocence to all charges and gave himself up voluntarily to the Tribunal de Garantia de Temuco.
We ask for an immediate revision to the case involving Waikilaf, we have not received any news from a supposed investigation by the police.
Up to today the only information that we have received is that the detainee has suffered at the hands of the prison guards, these include a number of beatings, psychological, verbal abuse, serious burns on his back and solitary confinement.
As declared by the United Nations Human Rights charter, all the above-mentioned acts are prohibited. Furthermore is our understanding that the government of Chile has signed these treaties with the U N and complies to uphold there meaning.
Hoping for a speedy result and clarity in this case:
Your Sincerely

adresses at the national and internacional level
•
• Misión de Chile ante la Unión Europea , Rue des
Aduatiques, 106, 1040-Bruxelles,
Fax.: +32 (02) 736 49 94,