Rights row over Chilean torture boat at Amsterdam nautical festival
Source: RFI
Article published the Thursday 20 August 2015 - Latest update : Thursday 20 August 2015
Rights row over Chilean torture boat at Amsterdam nautical festival
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Chilean school navy ship, Esmeralda
Wikimedia / Denis C. Cantrell
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By RFI
Human rights campaign were up in arms this week over the presence of the Chilean ship Esmeralda at festival for historic boats in the Dutch town of Amsterdam because political opponents of General Augusto Pinochet were tortured on it during the 1970s military dictatorship.
This is the first time that the Chilean school navy ship is included in Sail Amsterdam and it has brought controversy to the event. Some Chilean exiles felt uncomfortable at the idea of the vessel being somehow celebrated when coming to the Netherlands.
Mapuche, a Dutch-Chilean association of exiles, said in a statement that it looked as if Chile was trying to cover up the Esmeralda's past since at least 100 people were tortured or raped on board during Pinochet's 1973-1990 rule.
Amnesty International also expressed disappointment at the fact that the boat's dark past was still taboo and was not mentioned on the official Sail website.
Read more: http://www.english.rfi.fr/sports/20150820-historic-vessels-and-torture-boat-amsterdam-nautical-festival
Judi Lynn
(160,649 posts)Protests as Chilean torture ship comes to England
30 Jun 2003, 12:00am
Amnesty International members will be holding protests in Dartmouth (9 July 2003, time tbc) and London (16 July 2003, 12:00 pm, West India Docks, Docklands, Meridian Gate) to voice concern at the ship's use as an 'ambassador' for Chile.
The organisation is writing to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, the Chilean President and the ship's commander, calling for acknowledgement of the use of torture in Chile and full investigations into all accusations.
Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:
'The use as a 'goodwill ambassador' of this vessel, where hundreds were tortured, is an affront to the victims of torture, to their families and to fundamental human rights.
'The thousands who survived torture under Pinochet have still not been acknowledged and their torturers have not been brought to justice. The Chilean navy must acknowledge the dark history of the Esmeralda and the authorities must launch a full investigation into allegations of widespread torture under Pinochet's rule.'
More:
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/protests-chilean-torture-ship-comes-england
Judi Lynn
(160,649 posts)This tall ship has a bloody, brutal history
La Esmeralda: The Chilean vessel was used as a torture chamber during Pinochet's rule, and an English priest died on board.
June 18, 2000|By Stacie Jonas and Sarah Anderson
TALL SHIPS FROM around the world are scheduled to sail into Baltimore's Inner Harbor on Friday for what organizers are touting as an event to promote "cultural exchange and good will."
The ships will surely be a majestic sight. But behind the stately image of one of these ships, La Esmeralda, lies a terrifying history that should not be forgotten.
In 1973, in the aftermath of a bloody coup against the democratically elected government, the Chilean Navy made a special contribution to the new military junta led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. They allowed La Esmeralda, a four-masted Chilean naval ship, to be used as a prison and torture chamber. According to testimony collected by Amnesty International and the Organization of American States, at least 110 political prisoners - 70 men and 40 women - were interrogated aboard the ship for more than two weeks without charges or trial.
The former mayor of Valparaiso, where the ship was stationed, described being tied to one of the ship's masts and subjected repeatedly to electric shock. "I couldn't sleep for six days because they woke me up every six minutes, night and day," he told Amnesty International. "We could hear how the others were tortured right where we were."
More:
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2000-06-18/topic/0006170165_1_esmeralda-sail-torture-chamber
Judi Lynn
(160,649 posts)government agents spied on them.
From an old post at D.U.:
...Times have changed in the United States as well. Back in the summer of
1976 when La
Esmeralda was last docked in Baltimore harbor, FBI investigators were
busy conducting extensive surveillance of the Americans protesting the
ship.
In hindsight, the FBI's focus appears shockingly misplaced. While they
had their
lenses on peaceful protestors, the real security threat was heading
toward our nation's
capital apparently unnoticed. On Sept. 21, 1976, Pinochet's agents
detonated a car bomb,
killing former Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and 25-year-old
American Ronni Karpen
Moffitt in Washington as they drove to work at our organization, the
Institute for
Policy Studies.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=116x1264
MisterP
(23,730 posts)trying to conceal why we're paying attention to this lovely machine