Germany’s president on Tuesday said that he regrets his country’s diplomats failed for years to act on human rights violations at a secretive colony of German immigrants in Chile.
Germany recently ordered documents about Colonia Dignidad, or Dignity Colony, from 1986 until 1996 to be declassified for research purposes. For three decades from 1961, the enclave was the site of torture, slavery and child abuse.
“German diplomats didn’t take seriously the human rights violations at a concrete time,” German President Joachim Gauck said at a joint news conference with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.
Photo: EPA/WOLFGANG KUMM
The leaders met earlier and Gauck said they spoke about “dark chapters” in their countries’ past.
“We hope that the declassifying of these documents will help contribute to knowing the truth about the many disappeared and executed at Colonia Dignidad and its surroundings,” Bachelet said.
The colony was founded by Paul Schaefer, a former medic in the Luftwaffe. After his World War II service, Schaefer became an evangelical preacher. He fled Germany after being accused of molesting boys at the orphanage he ran and began what became home to hundreds of Germans and Chileans in the enclave about 400km southeast of Santiago.
Schaefer also allowed former Chilean president General Augusto Pinochet’s security forces to operate a clandestine prison on the grounds where they tortured and executed dissidents during the 1973 to 1990 military dictatorship, according to witnesses’ testimony in court documents.
Colony members said married couples were forced to live apart and children were separated from parents. Residents were prevented from leaving. Those who dared to upset Schaefer were subject to electric shocks, high doses of tranquilizers and long periods of isolation.
There were also dozens of allegations of child molestation, leading Schaefer to flee Chile in 1997. He was arrested in Argentina in 2005 and extradited to Chile the same year.
Schaefer died in prison in 2010, while serving time for abusing about 20 children at the colony.
The enclave’s history was featured in a recent movie starring Emma Watson and Daniel Bruehl.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
RSS