Trees for Human Rights/ Víctor Jara Festival

ECOMEMORIA

Machynlleth, Wales

13 - 14 August 2011




As part of the Víctor Jara Festival Ecomemoria invites you to participate in the planting of 2 trees in memory of the victims of the Chilean military junta.



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OVERVIEW (This information is in the attachment.)

The decades of the ‘70s and ‘80s were witness to the implementation of an estate of terror across the Latin-American continent, leaving in its wake a trail of terror and torture. In Chile the State sponsored regime of repression left hundreds of thousands of victims, over 3,000 murdered and 1,119 desaparecidos (“disappeared”). Moreover, there was a policy of systematic exploitation of the native forests and the indiscriminate pollution of the environment. An integral part of this socio-economic policy was the implementation of a strategy of “cover-up”, aimed at hiding all evidence of human rights violations and the destructive effects of their environmental policies. As part of the on-going movement to counteract this campaign of “institutionalised amnesia”, human rights groups have come together to put in progress a project that encompasses both the human rights and environmental violations perpetrated by the Chilean military dictatorship. At the heart of this project is the creation of a forest of native trees that will represent all of the victims of the military dictatorship. We propose to plant a tree for every political-executed and “disappeared” in Chile and across the world. With this symbolic act of union, ECOlogy and MEMORy (ECOMEMORIA), we propose to create a “living memorial” in homage to the victims and as a living testimony for future generations.

...a tree for each memory

each memory for a life,

a life in each tree,

reforesting the planet

sowing a new conscience…

Objectives:

This project is born from the necessity to keep alive the memory of all the victims of the military dictatorship of Chile. This living memorial takes form in the process of planting a native tree (ecomemoria) for each victim. This process will take place in its first phase by planting trees across Europe and the Americas and then in a pre-determined area of Chile with the participation of the local communities, human rights and ecological groups.

The main objectives of this project are:



a) The creation of a forest of native trees that becomes the “living memory” of all the victims of the military dictatorship.

b) The conservation of native trees particularly those that are in danger of extinction. In Chile these include the Araucaria, Quillay, Laurel, Alerce, Canelo, Espino etc.

c) To provide a source of re-generation and re-oxygenation for the community.

d) To counter-act the indiscriminate exploitation of the environment that has endangered the native flora and fauna.


ECOMEMORIA

http://www.ecomemoria.cl

Human Rights International Project

E-mail: hhrr_project@hotmail.com