Secret grave discovered on Chilean cult grounds

by **emad** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 1:59 pm

Secret grave discovered on cult grounds Wed Jan 4, 12:42 PM ET SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Chilean officials have discovered an old grave on the property of a secretive German cult where opponents to the nation's 17-year dictatorship may have been buried after being tortured and killed. Chilean Judge Jorge Zepeda said on Tuesday the cult property, known as Colonia Dignidad and once run by the German citizen Paul Schaefer, was used as a center for torture and as a clandestine cemetery during the rule of former dictator Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet ruled during an era in which an estimated 3,000 people died in political violence and some 28,000 people were tortured, according to official reports. Zepeda said that between 10 and 12 opponents to the Pinochet regime were likely killed and buried on the property. He did not say when then grave was discovered. Chilean officials said in June they discovered a cache of machine guns and rocket-launchers, one of the biggest weapons finds in the South American country's history, at the Colonia Dignidad. Schafer, who led the cult of several hundred German followers in southern Chile for decades, is accused of aiding the secret police during Chile's 1973-1990 military dictatorship. He fled Chile in 1997 and eluded capture until his arrest last year in Buenos Aires and is currently in custody in Santiago. <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060104/od_nm/chile_cult_dc;_ylt=Aoza3NcNxP_Kep8QhkVecr8Z.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3NW1oMDRpBHNlYwM3NTc-">news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060...NlYwM3NTc-</a>

by **emad** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 2:07 pm

Secrets of ex-Nazi's Chilean fiefdom By Becky Branford BBC News Friday 11 March 2005 Paul Schaefer - a former Nazi medic, Baptist preacher and alleged cult leader - has finally been captured in Argentina after eight years on the run. His arrest means he may face trial on outstanding charges of the sexual abuse of young boys in Chile. Mr Schaefer, who is in his 80s, has also been denounced by former followers and by human rights campaigners. For them, his capture signals the end to decades of impunity for what they allege are his strange and terrible crimes. Paul Schaefer was a medic in Hitler's army during World War II. After the war, he set up an evangelical ministry and a youth home, purportedly to care for war orphans. But he was charged with sexually abusing two boys - and in 1961 he fled to Chile, reportedly accompanied by some 70 followers. There, in a lush valley in the Andean foothills, he set up Colonia Dignidad - now renamed Villa Baviera. Small empire The colony near the city of Parral, some 350km (220 miles) south of Santiago, grew to about 300 members - mostly German immigrants, or their descendants, but including some Chilean followers. The 137-sq-km (53-sq-mile) Colonia Dignidad boasted a school, a hospital, two airstrips, a restaurant, and a power station, and reportedly made millions of dollars through a diversified range of businesses, including agriculture, mining and real estate. It won over local people by offering jobs and free schooling and hospital care. Details of life in the colony are hard to verify. Some visitors have described a scene from 1930s Germany, with women wearing aprons, with their hair in pigtails, and men in lederhosen. Defenders say the members of the colony may be eccentric, but they are harmless, and in fact do good. "I know them, and I like them," Otto Dorr Zegers, a prominent Chilean psychiatrist who has worked in the Colonia Dignidad hospital, told the New York Times. "Their ideology is a little bit old-fashioned, like that of the Mennonites who went to the United States, but nothing justifies the co-ordinated, synchronised lies and distortions that have been invented about them." The names of centres such as Colonia Dignidad... continue to evoke chilling memories in Chile Amnesty International But "defectors" from the camp paint a more sinister picture. His accusers say Colonia Dignidad was Mr Schaefer's fiefdom, where he was worshipped as a god. They say residents, who are never allowed beyond the gates of the camp, are kept strictly segregated into genders - so much so that the birth rate of the camp is extremely low. Residents are taught to shun sexual desires - with electric shocks administered to the genitals of young boys, former residents say. And they accuse Mr Schaefer of the almost daily sexual abuse of young boys. Horror stories have emerged of the young sons of poor local families "disappearing" within the barriers of the compound. Torture house But Mr Schaefer's story is not confined to the perimeter fence of the colony - topped with barbed wire, studded with searchlights, and overlooked by a watchtower. It goes right to the heart of the Chilean state during the iron rule of Gen Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s and 1980s - a period with which Chileans are still struggling to come to terms today. Dissidents say they were tortured in bunkers at Colonia Dignidad The son of Manuel Contreras - the head of Dina, Chile's now-disbanded notorious secret police - has told the Los Angeles Times his father first visited Colonia Dignidad with Gen Pinochet in 1974. He has spoken of the warm relationship that grew between his father and Mr Schaefer. Former political prisoners of Gen Pinochet have testified to a warren of stone-walled tunnels under the colony, where they were taken to be tortured with electric shocks to the strains of Wagner and Mozart. The Truth and Justice Commission, which investigated human rights abuses during Gen Pinochet's rule, backs such allegations. And despite decades of allegations concerning the sexual abuse of boys within the compound, charges were not filed against Schaefer until 1996 - six years after Chile began its return to democracy. Thanks to Mr Schaefer's close links with Chile's ruling elite, the colony was able to operate with impunity as a "state within a state", said a Chilean congressional report. Critics say elements within Chile's ruling establishment would still prefer to keep details of his involvement with Gen Pinochet's government concealed. They say Chile must confront such allegations if it is to complete the process of coming to terms with its past. <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4340591.stm">news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world...340591.stm</a>

by **emad** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 2:11 pm

A German woman who worked as a doctor at a commune-like camp in Chile has been charged with torturing children. A Chilean judge said Gisela Seewald had confessed to giving electric shocks and sedatives to children at the secretive German enclave of Colonia Dignidad. She said the abuses were ordered by the enclave's founder, former Nazi soldier Paul Schaefer, who is also in custody. Mr Schaefer is facing charges of child abuse and aiding human rights abuses during Chile's military dictatorship. The former Baptist preacher established the 13,000-hectare (32,000-acre) colony in southern Chile in 1961, after fleeing Germany to escape child abuse charges. He has also been charged in connection with the confession by Mrs Seewald. Commune hospital The indictment produced by Judge Jorge Zepeda said Mrs Seewald, 75, had confessed to giving drugs and electric shocks to eight German children who Mr Schaefer claimed were possessed. "She followed him in his obsession to separate the children from their families and inhibit their sexuality," the judge said. Mrs Seewald arrived in Colonia Dignidad in 1963, two years after Mr Schaefer and her husband, Dr Gerd Seewald. She was head of the commune's hospital between 1975 and 1978. Mr and Mrs Seewald have been living at the enclave, now known as Villa Baviera, which was taken over by the Chilean authorities earlier this year. As well as abuses against the commune's residents - most of whom are believed to have been held there against their will - the judge is investigating the possibility that arms trafficking and human rights abuses took place under Mr Schaefer's leadership. A Chilean congressional report has alleged that Colonia Dignidad operated as a "state within a state" during the dictatorship of Gen Augusto Pinochet, thanks to Mr Schaefer's close ties to the country's ruling elite. <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4565664.stm">news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world...565664.stm</a>

by **Et in Arcadia ego** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 2:56 pm

More here at this DU thread: <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2021628]Link">www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2021628]Link</a>

Secret grave discovered on Chilean cult grounds

Secret grave discovered on Chilean cult grounds

Secrets of ex-Nazi's Chilean fiefdom

German charged over 'Chile abuse'

Re: German charged over 'Chile abuse'

Who is online