translated from Spanish: Parliamentary Künast: “Germany is responsible for the victims of the sect kept Colonia Dignidad

” Germany is responsible for the victims of the “” sect that kept Colonia Dignidad, because both the Germany Embassy in Santiago de Chile and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs deliberately closed their eyes to the crimes committed there, for years”, said Renate Künast duranteparlamentaria a visit to Chile.
The parliamentary Greens belongs to a Committee of the Bundestag for the treatment of crimes in Colonia Dignidad. She is currently in Chile, along with the deputies Michael Brand, Christian Democrat and Social Democrat, Matthias Bartke, to analyze the treatment of crimes in Colonia Dignidad and the support to the victims.
Künast: German policy has failed in this settlement, managed by a German sect, and during the dictatorship military of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), they were raped, tortured and killed dozens of people. The facilities of Colonia Dignidad had more than 13,000 hectares. Later it was called Villa Bavieria, and it was inhabited by several hundred German emigrants and their families.
It is “amazing how a system could last so long”, said Künast. For decades there were allegations and evidence that there was a regime of violence and deprivation of liberty in Colonia Dignidad. “This is a failure of German politics,” he criticized. German authorities “helped to maintain this system of injustice by not intervening,” concludes the Künast lawyer.
Künast want to clear bureaucratic barriers to see how you can open a support fund and how to provide it, and believes there is a prudent time to do so. The extreme poverty in which many people live in the region did not happen unnoticed for German policy. It’s the locals that they can not pay the studies of their children or medical expenses.
Künast and his colleagues of the Bundestag also discussed opening an independent documentation centre and a monument victims of Colonia Dignidad, along with Chile.
A plan criticized in 2017, the Bundestag demanded compensation for the victims of Colonia Dignidad and better treatment of the crimes committed there. A support plan, presented at the end of June, mentions a ‘community of victims’ assistance fund.
But this plan was rejected in the Parliament itself, because it did not consider any individual compensation. Following criticism, the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Heiko Maas, did not rule out individual compensation, but warned that the Federal Government kept them “very restricted”.
Colonia Dignidad was founded by the former member of the Wehrmacht and lay pastor Paul Schäfer, who fled from Germany to near the city of Parral, some 350 kilometers south of Santiago. The minions of Schäfer Chilean opponents tortured and trained members of the Chilean secret service at the time of Pinochet.
After the end of the military dictatorship in Chile, grew the accusations and complaints against the leaders of Colonia Dignidad. In addition to abusing children, there taxes are evaded, there was smuggling weapons, kept a people deprived of their freedom and prohibited drugs were used. In 1991, the sect was officially disbanded.

Original source in Spanish