Community leaders on Easter Island have threatened to secede from Chile and transfer allegiance to Polynesian states in a row over land rights and immigration.
American Empire Before...
Best Price: $1.70
Buy New $6.61
(as of 02:50 UTC - Details)
Prominent families from the indigenous Rapa Nui population have told the Pacific Islands Forum, an inter-governmental body, that they wish to renounce Chilean sovereignty and be considered part of Oceania rather than the Americas.
Easter Island is a remote speck in the Pacific 2,300 miles west of Chile. It was annexed by Santiago in 1888 and made a province of the Valparaiso region but is considered a special territory, not least because giant statues known as moais make it a Unesco world heritage site.
Leviante Araki, head of the Rapa Nui "parliament", an advocacy group for indigenous people who comprise half the 5,000 population, requested secession in a letter this week to the Pacific Island Forum and Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera. The would-be separatists resent what they say is an uncontrolled influx of tourists and settlers and accuse the government of taking over ancestral land with state offices. Protesters occupied several state-owned buildings.
August 16, 2010
