And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: FYI........... http://www.nando.net/noframes/story/0,2107,61674-98073-699007-0,00.html From: LAWRENCE SAMPSON <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Chilean Indians complete anti-government protest march Copyright © 1999 Nando Media Copyright © 1999 Reuters News Service SANTIAGO, Chile (June 19, 1999 2:16 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Disenchanted Mapuche Indians from southern Chile walked the final leg of a 420-mile protest march Saturday and prepared to participate in a demonstration to demand more land and greater autonomy. Nearly 100 Mapuches, a people who kept the Spanish conquistadors at bay in southern Chile for three centuries, have been walking 24 days from the city of Temuco in the heart of their ancestral lands. The marchers were due to arrive on the outskirts of Santiago late Saturday and planned to enter the capital on Sunday for a demonstration in the city center, a spokesman for the Mapuche group Consejo de Todas Las Tierras said. "We expect at least 1,000 in the demonstration on Sunday, probably more, in support of the historic march that underlines our anti-government protest," the spokesman said. The protest on Sunday will be capped by Mapuche dances and music as well as speeches by Indian leaders to underscore their grievances against the government. Indigenous discontent has swollen in Chile in recent months, with numerous illegal land seizures in southern Chile that have often turned into violent clashes with police. Mapuche leaders argue the government of President Eduardo Frei has not fulfilled election promises of returning ancestral lands to the native population, which is estimated to number nearly 1 million. The government, restricted by limited funding, has acquired isolated tracts of land and handed them over to indigenous communities in recent years. But Mapuche leaders claim the land returned to Indian families has been insufficient. As a result, Mapuches have called for the establishment of their own parliament and greater autonomy from the central government. Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
