Dear Mr. President,

The Forest Peoples Programme is writing to express its shock and concern at news of intimidation and unjust imprisonment of indigenous Mapuche leaders in Temuco, Chile on 29 November 2001. The purpose of this letter is to urge you to use all the powers available to your office to resolve this situation and ensure that the Mapuche leaders are treated in full accordance with international human rights law and the Chilean constitution.

According to the information available to us, the Military Prosecutor Mr. Rodolfo Kaufhold has brought charges against the members of the Consejo de Todas las Tierras (CTT) for allegedly assaulting police officers during a previous unprovoked raid on the CTT office on 20 July 2001. The Mapuche leaders reject these charges and maintain that they were the victims of an assault. They also reject the charges because they fail to take account of the brutal way in which the police force carried out the raid in July: women were beaten and indigenous leaders suffered violence at the hands of the police who also damaged and confiscated office equipment and files without justification.

Following these charges, we undertand that further abuses have been perpetuated in another police raid on 29 November 2001 which resulted in the imprisonment of six members of the All the Lands Council: Aucan Huilcaman, Manuel Santander, Margot Collipal, Adan Ayenao, Adrian Ayenao and Sergio Marillan. These people have been detained under the accusation that they are a "danger to society". We very disturbed to learn that there is also a warrant for the arrest of José Naín Pérez, who was away from Temuco on the day of the raid, whom the police are searching for in order to imprison him with his brothers.

We are informed that the current imprisonment of Mapuche leaders is the result of military laws dating back to the dictatorship. There is therefore a risk that the imprisoned members of the CTT will be tried by military tribunal without recourse to proper channels of justice. Most worrying are the signs that this repressive legal process has been instigated by powerful logging and forestry interests who oppose the Mapuche struggle to defend and regain their traditional lands.

Mr. President, we respectfully urge you to ensure that these unjust arrests and imprisonments are anulled and that those responsible for intimidation of indigenous leaders are penalised. We urge you, Mr. President, to support the Mapuche people in their rightful struggle to obtain proper title and protections for their ancestral territories in Chile.

Fair justice and treatment of indigenous organisations by your government will demonstrate to the World that Chile takes its human rights obligations seriously and has finally rejected its oppressive colonial and military past.

In this context, we urge you to take immediate steps to investigate this grave situation and ensure that the rights of those unjustly detained are fully respected.

We shall look forward to learning how the Chilean government plans to deal with this serious situation.

Yours sincerely,

cc.