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FORMER
COLONIA DIGNIDAD MEMBERS ADMIT CRIMES IN LETTER TO
PRESIDENT
(April 20, 2006) Former members of Colonia
Dignidad left a letter Tuesday at La Moneda Palace addressed to
President Michelle Bachelet, acknowledging human rights crimes that
occurred in the colony before, during, and after the Pinochet era.
The three-and-a-half-page letter was delivered by Susanne
Schreiber and Martin Matthusen and gave a detailed explanation about
events in the German settlement in southern Chile. It said that
colony leader Paul Schäfer was responsible for carrying out the
human rights violations that occurred at Colonia Dignidad for over
40 years, and for serial child abuse.
Colonia Dignidad was a
right-wing religious compound settled by German immigrants in 1961
near Parral, in southern Chile. Its leader, Schäfer, had fled German
justice, accused of pedophilia. But Schäfer’s close relationship
with right wing Chilean political leaders, especially after
Pinochet’s rise to power, prevented any further investigation into
these crimes (ST Jan. 11, 2006).
Former members who still
live in the colony wanted to clear the air about their behavior,
especially since Schäfer was finally brought to justice and
imprisoned in Argentina more than a year ago on March 10, 2005 after
seven years on the run from Chilean courts (ST Mar. 11, 2005).
The letter explained how the colony was created and how
Schäfer rose to power. “In order for him to gain absolute power of
the colony, we were forced to remove ourselves from the outside
world and to cut all ties from our families who remained in
Germany,” the letter said.
Children born into the colony
were separated from their parents at birth, and so colony members
had no way of knowing if their children were victims of sexual
abuse. “Among the children, our own children, Schäfer was the
ultimate authority,” the letter explained. “He picked his victims in
such a way that none of the adults would ever have known about his
sexual abuses.”
The letter also explained Schäfer’s
brainwashing techniques.
“Some of us became his slaves,
robots who just obeyed his orders and worked without a schedule or
any breaks,” read the letter. It further explained that if Schäfer’s
orders were not obeyed, members were subject to severe punishment,
including “electric shock, tranquilizers and isolation treatment,
sometimes for long periods of time.”
The former colonists
said they now understand the seriousness of the crimes committed in
Colonia Dignidad and are ready to collaborate with the judicial
system and to be pardoned for their mistakes: “We realized that we
had committed serious crimes. We want to make the effort to say how
sorry we are and to reintegrate into society.”
The former
colony members may find forgiveness difficult to come by. Attorney
Hernán Fernández, who represents the victims sexually abused by
Schäfer, has his doubts. “There is a risk that those that carried
out the crimes might be confused with the real victims,” he said.
“People won’t forget that the crimes continued at Colonia Dignidad
even after Schäfer escaped to Argentina.”
Others who will be
a long time forgiving include the family members of opponents to the
Pinochet military regime who were last seen alive in Colonia
Dignidad, and the family of Boris Weisfeiler, the U.S. mathematics
professor taken there in 1985 and not seen since.
SOURCES: LA
TERCERA, DIARIO SIETE
By Jen Sotolongo
(editor@santiagotimes.cl)
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