Page: 22762
Ms SYLVIA HALE [10.48 p.m.]: Yesterday it was my pleasure to attend a delegation of trade unionists, human rights and anti-war campaigners who met with the Consul General of Chile, Mr Eduardo Ruiz, to demand immediate negotiations with Mapuche Indian hunger strikers now on their fifty-seventh day without food. Since Monday 13 March 2006 four Mapuche political prisoners have been on a hunger strike in the Chilean prison of Angol. The hunger strike has been undertaken in order to compel the Chilean Government and the international community to review the judgment that has seen them unfairly sentenced to 10 years and one day of imprisonment, and to pay $US791,000 in compensation to Mininco, a multinational forestry and logging company. The delegation handed to the Consul General a letter addressed to Chile's President, Michelle Bachelet, and demanded immediate action on the prisoners' demands and an end to the Anti-Terrorism Law No. 18,314 of 1984.
[Time for debate expired.]
Motion agreed to.
The House adjourned at 10.49 p.m. until Wednesday 10 May 2006 at 11.00 a.m.
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