/* Written 4:09 PM Oct 8, 1995 by newsdesk in igc:ips.english */
Copyright 1995 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
*** 05-Oct-95 ***
Title: PANAMA-INDIGENOUS: Native Peoples Face Brutal Punishment
PANAMA, Oct 5 (IPS) - Authorities on Panama's western coast, in a
practice recalling the Middle Ages, have brought back the wooden
pillory to punish rebellious native peoples, a local humanitarian
group has charged.
Activists of Catholic group Service of Peace and Justice
(Serpaj) showed photographs of an improvised pillory used to hold
indigenous men, women and children accused of breaking the law.
The pillory was constructed of two wooden boards with openings
in the shape of a half moon. It is used to immobilize a person by
his neck, feet or arms.
Jose Mendoza, coordinator of Serpaj, told IPS that they have
already identified four locations where local officials are using
this medieval punishment device to imprison accused lawbreakers by
their feet.
Mendoza said that Serpaj activists ''confirmed'' the use of
pillories in Chorcha in the district of San Felix, in Cerro
Iglesia, the districts of Remedios and in Cerro Puerco, and in
the district of Tole -- all located in the western province of
Chiriqui, bordering Costa Rica.
Pillories were also set up in El Prado, district of Las Palmas
of the same province, he added.
Victims of this punishment are the Ngobe-Bugle indigenous
people. For the last 20 years they have been locked in dispute
with the government for the return of some 11,000 sq kms of
territory located in Chiriqui and in the western provinces of
Veraguas and Bocas del Toro.
The Serpaj coordinator said generally, the indigenous people
are punished over land disputes with non-indigenous cattle
ranchers and farmers occupying the lands the indigenous people
claim.
''The Chiriqui authorities are well aware of the use of the
pillories,'' said Mendoza, ''but they don't do anything to stop
it.''
The Justice Department, whose jurisdiction covers these
provincial officials, and the Department of Internal Affairs,
which handles crimes against the state, ''have kept absolutely
silent,'' about Serpaj's discovery, said Mendoza.
Even though Panama won its independence from Spain in 1928,
pillories from the colonial times were still being used on native
people until the end of the 1960s.
''This is a non-indigenous cultural practice which the Indians
fought to eradicate,'' Mendoza said.
However, ''in the face of growing discontent because of the
land issue, officials are imposing a special justice system for
Indians.''
Serpaj noted in a communique that ''the use of the pillory is
illegal, criminal and violates the laws that prohibit cruel,
inhuman and degrading treatment.''
The punishment, according to Mendoza, lasts anywhere from a few
hours to an entire day or even five days. But there have been
cases, he said, of an Indian shackled a whole day over some
dispute with a landowner, while a person who has committed bodily
harm to another is punished for only five hours.
On other occasions, a person may be shackled because they
didn't have five dollars to pay a fine for some minor violation,
Mendoza said.
The practice has been kept hidden, he explained, because those
punished are then threatened with being shackled once again if
they complain to human rights groups or to lawmakers.
This situation, according to the human rights office of the
Catholic Church, is aggravated by the attitude of the Institute of
Agrarian Reform ''which claims not to have lawyers, transportation
nor resources to attend to the Indians' complaints.''
Mendoza told IPS that in the next few days Serpaj will present
their case to the United Nations denouncing ''this scandalous
violation of human rights.'' (END/IPS/SH/MR/95)
Origin: Amsterdam/PANAMA-INDIGENOUS/
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[ Redistributed to NATIVE-L and soc.culture.native with permission. ]
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