Kent Spriggs, North American Human Rights
Observer in Aysen
” …what I’ve seen looks similar to the Gaza Strip… “
Coyhaique.-
Human rights lawyer, Kent Spriggs, who has counseled prisoners
detained in Guantánamo and is active in the campaign to close
the School of the Americas, is visiting the Region of Aysen to
see for himself, on the ground, the situation being experienced
by people in the area. He notes that after being in the area
only a few hours, that he is overwhelmed by the marks left by
the violence, “We saw a vehicle equipped with water cannons
burning, cars turned over, houses with blockades in front,
covered in order to prevent pellets and gas bombs (Molotovs)
from entering. It’s really intense,” he says, adding that the
black flags they’ve raised up in the majority of the homes, is a
true sign of the “suffering of these people.”
He
indicates that what impresses him is “the extraordinary courage
it takes to resist the special forces of the Chilean police.
”He said
he was traveling through routes with innumerable obstacles (barricades)
where, next to fires, you could see “women drinking warm drinks”
and that “they stayed there all night in spite of the cold.” He
adds that it shows you the level of organization [they have],
that just when a police attack starts, with one signal hundreds
of people appear coming from everywhere, it’s marvelous, he
asserts “I don’t know of any community in my country who could
be so unified.”
When
asked about the level of repression, he affirms that there
should be an international campaign to condemn the State of
Chile for “the massive violence exercised over a defenseless
community.” The police in the darkness of night enter the houses,
causing damage and traumatizing children and pobladores; the
levels of stress and fear surely have grave consequences, like
Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, that some organization or the
state itself should deal with. Here “an entire community has
been punished; there’s been an indiscriminate violence, surely
trying to force the community to stop supporting the movement.”
The collective punishment “is very similar to what happens in
the Gaza Strip with the difference being that this is not a
military occupied zone" stated the human rights observer.
Fuente y Foto:
http://www.nuevagenda.cl/2012/03/23/kent-spriggs-observador-norteamericano-de-derechos-humanos-en-aysen-lo-que-he-visto-se-parece-a-la-franja-de-gaza/
Traducción: Amanda Jordan
www.soaw.org
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