Secret grave discovered on (Chilean) cult grounds (Reuters)

[Up2Late]

(Not really sure why this ended up on the "Oddly Enough" page at the Reuters website, seems a bit too important for that page.)

Secret grave discovered on cult grounds

Wed Jan 4, 2006 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.

(more at link below)

<http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=10752433&src=rss/oddlyEnoughNews>

[DBoon]

1. The BBC just ran a story on this place

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4565664.stm

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.

[Up2Late]

2. WTF? Did you see the BBC News Headline?

"German charged over 'Chile abuse'"

Why are they treating this like it's some sort of Joke? This is really weird, maybe this is how they get this story past the MSM Censors?

[tatertop]

3. that's a little disturbing

[DBoon]

4. even the BBC has their sick, tasteless moments

the bulk of the story was very informative though

[rpannier]

5. It's a really weird story

It begins with former Nazi soldier -- so I assumed it was a Nazi in hiding. Then it says Baptist Preacher. Then I find out it was a religious commune. I didn't see any connection between this whack job and pinochet.

[FlaGranny]

13. I'm exceedingly happy they finally arrested

those people. Nasty stories coming out of the place for a long time. I hope they get what's coming to them.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Some posters have been looking for any new information on this group.

A DU friend/reader who lived in Chile told some DU posters on another board that they have two different colonies in Chile, and have been there for decades. He has been very familiar with them for a long time, having lived in the area.

Here's a story which surfaced in 2000:

Torture colony raided in Chile

Nazi SS veteran still at large

By Martin A. Lee

On Oct. 11 over fifty Chilean police officers stormed the headquarters of Colonia Dignidad, a secretive German enclave whose leaders have been linked to human rights abuses perpetrated by General Augusto Pinochet's dictatorial regime. This was the latest in a series of police raids prompted by judicial efforts to ascertain the fate of political opponents who disappeared during Pinochet's 17-year rule, which began in 1973.

According to Amnesty International, Colonia Dignidad functioned as a detention and torture center for DINA, the Chilean secret service, after Pinochet seized power in a military coup that crushed the democratically elected government of leftist Salvador Allende. DINA reportedly disposed of its mutilated victims in unmarked mass graves along with special chemicals to facilitate the swift decomposition of dead bodies. Hundreds of political prisoners disappeared from Colonia Dignidad without a trace.

Last month a suit was filed in Santiago, the Chilean capital, against Pinochet on behalf of Boris Westfeiler, a Russian-born U.S. mathematician who vanished while being held at Colonia Dignidad in 1985. The Westfeiler case is one of 174 legal complaints pending against Pinochet. The former dictator, age 84, was stripped of his immunity from prosecution in August.

Declassified U.S. State Department cables obtained by lawyers for Westfeiler's family describe Colonia Dignidad as "a religious sect led by a charismatic leader similar to Jim Jones in the Jonestown (Guyana) disaster." The "charismatic leader" referred to is Paul Schaefer, a fanatical Nazi émigré – otherwise known as "the Doctor" – who founded Colonia Dignidad 220 miles south of Santiago in 1961.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfbg.com/reality/02.html

Rise and fall of Colonia Dignidad


Rise and fall of Colonia Dignidad (March 23, 2005)
To detention of Paul Schaefer

Nil Nikandrov

In case of any reproductions, reference to the site www.Tiwy.com is a must.
In the 60 – 70 the soviet press wrote a lot about German Colonia Dignidad that found its refuge in Chilean foothills. Its notorious fame was linked, first of all, with Nazis, allegedly hiding themselves there after the second world war. By the efforts of journalists and authors of the literary best-sellers the colony was tightly “inhabited” by Hitler party bonzes, sombre agents of gestapo, smart doctors-sadists and invincible aces of “Luftwaffe”.
(snip)

“Charitable and educational society “Dignidad” - has been the complete official name of the colony since its foundation in 1961.

For thirty years the colony enjoyed the exclusive rights. In its chartered documents it declared that it would take care of children-orphans, their education and preparation to future professional activity. And also it was promised to provide free medical services to the neighboring with the colony region, to build schools, to teach local peasants the “art of cultural management”.

In 1991 by the decree of the President of Chile Patricio Aylwin the colony was practically dismissed on the plea of flagrant violation of the declared during establishing goals, numerous violations of national legislation. “Children charity” was used by the colony to conceal its illegal commercial activity and licentious paedophilia. However, the ex-Colonia Dignidad or Villa Bavaria, as it was called later, managed to survive. The colony authorities have been warned about the presidential decree in advance and transferred all property into monetary funds to the dummy names. Court officers did not get anything... but arrogant mockery over the Chilean authorities, whose attempt to ruin a state within the state faced “persistent defense” of the leader of the colony and his mates. They defended their benefits and multi-million fortune, profitable real estate, flourishing enterprises.

Paul Schaefer, native of Germany, guided by the inner totalitarian doctrines of his own “authorship”, had absolute rule in this “mini-state” for a long time. His “subjects” - totally 300 persons, mostly the Germans – worshiped his “Fuhrer” as a God. From morning till evening they toiled on the fields and enterprises of highly profitable “Dignidad Company” processing the agricultural products.
(snip/...)

http://www.tiwy.com/pais/chile/dignidad/eng.phtml

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just because most Americans haven't heard of this does NOT mean it isn't of any consequence. Many, many, many people know of these monsters in Chile, the rest of Latin America, and even in the States.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Oh, jeez. This would make a maggot gag.....

If you continue reading the second link, you will see this connection between Colonia Dignidad, Pinochet, and the Nixon/Ford administrations:

Meanwhile, Pinochet and his dreaded secret service chief, General Manuel Contreras, were given the red carpet treatment when they visited Colonia Dignidad during the early years of military rule. At the time, one of DINA's main priorities was the physical elimination of Chile's left-wing opposition at home and abroad. Toward this end, DINA participated in a CIA-backed intelligence-sharing effort, known as Operation Condor, with other repressive South American governments. The FBI also helped Pinochet, by providing data on suspected associates of Chilean leftists in the United States.

Under the auspices of Condor, the Chilean secret service utilized neofascist groups in Europe and the Americas to track down and murder Pinochet's critics. Colonia Dignidad pitched in by "allowing DINA to draw on national and international contacts," according to a recently declassified CIA report.

Topping DINA's hit list was Orlando Letelier, who had served as Chile's ambassador to the United States when Allende was president. DINA assassins planted the bomb beneath Letelier's car that exploded on Embassy Row in Washington, D.C., on the morning of Sept. 21, 1976. Letelier and a young American aide, Ronnie Moffit, were killed instantaneously by the remote-controlled blast, which occurred while Contreras, DINA's chief, served as a CIA informant. Contreras would later be convicted and jailed for masterminding the fatal attack.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfbg.com/reality/02.html

[bobbieinok]

21. Letelier was killed in DC while GHW Bush was head of CIA

the CIA said Pinochet not involved......in 2000, it was admitted that killer was a CIA asset

Robert Parry's article

http://www.davidicke.net/newsroom/america/usa/091501l.html

....


Nevertheless, the CIA - then under CIA director George H.W. Bush - leaked for public consumption an assessment clearing the Chilean government's feared intelligence service, DINA, which was then run by Contreras.

Relying on the word of Bush's CIA, Newsweek reported that "the Chilean secret police were not involved" in the Letelier assassination. "The agency reached its decision because the bomb was too crude to be the work of experts and because the murder, coming while Chile's rulers were wooing U.S. support, could only damage the Santiago regime."

Bush, who later became president of the United States and is the father of the current Republican nominee for the presidency, has never explained his role in putting out the false cover story that diverted attention away from the real terrorists. Nor has Bush explained what he knew about the Chilean intelligence operation in the weeks before Letelier and Moffitt were killed.

more....

[Up2Late]

15. Here's a link to a collection of information on this group...

...at a site that has a very large collection of info on Cult groups:

<http://www.rickross.com/groups/schafer.html>

From the RRI Mission Statement:

The Rick A. Ross Institute (RRI) of New Jersey is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization devoted to public education and research. RRI's mission is to study destructive cults, controversial groups and movements and to provide a broad range of information and services easily accessible to the public for assistance and educational purposes.

RRI maintains a large archive on the Internet and is available to assist researchers, the media, professionals and those concerned with accurate information about various cults, groups and movements and related issues of interest. <http://www.rickross.com/aboutus.html>

So what do you make of this story ending up on the "Oddly Enough" page at Reuters? That seems like a very odd place for something like this to end up.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Wonderful collection of information on this vicious group of replanted

Nazis. I'm looking forward to finding out far more than I've learned so far from this site. Thank you.

It makes no sense at all to stick this article on the "Oddly Enough" page. It's a little more important than that. You might think the person responsible simply had no grasp of historical reference, or politics, someone like a space alien, perhaps, or a freeper.

It IS an indication wierd things were afoot in Chile if the government allowed Nazis to create this community and prosper and grow so powerful until they worked hand-in-glove with a right-wing Chilean dictatorship supported, aided, guided, financed by Richard Nixon. It makes your skin crawl.

[struggle4progress]

19. Weisfeiler's sister would certainly like to know what happened to him.

[SpiralHawk]

8. Skull & Bones South?

Is this the Southern chapter of President AWOL's occult gang?

[Drifter]

9. Do they have oil ?

They sound like they need some freedom spreadin'

Cheers
Drifter

[emad]

10. Schaefer link to Opus Dei?

Last year's BBC News Night programme asked if Schaefer's financial links to Opus Dei had been corroborated.

Here's extract of the feature they did on him last March:



Secrets of ex-Nazi's Chilean fiefdom
By Becky Branford
BBC News
Friday, 11 March, 2005

SNIP:
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 "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.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4340591.stm

[Judi Lynn]

11. Stunning article. You know, there have always been stories of so many Nazi

characters hiding in South America. This is one very large example, and it's completely sinister.

From the ending of an excellent article:

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.
(snip/)

How fortunate for Nazi criminal/child molester/Opus Dei member Paul Schaeffer he could find a way to be of service to Nixon/Kissinger's favorite dictator, Pinochet, while enriching and affirming his own place in Chilean society.

[emad]

12. And last year, UK's No1 arms manufacturer BAe Systems

admitted that Pinochet had been a major beneficiary of a slush fund that it had run for him since 1979 (the year Thatcher slimed her way into No 10 Downing Street), and had paid him approx $11million to date. More notably, some 80% of this money had come from Saudi commissions/backhanders.....

[Judi Lynn]

14. Unbelievably powerful allies for such an ugly man.

It's almost impossible to overestimate the force behind these people.

[Up2Late]

17. Here's the BBC News report: Mass grave found in Chile enclave

Mass grave found in Chile enclave

Tuesday, 3 January 2006, 12:02 GMT

A Chilean judge is investigating the discovery of an unmarked grave in a German enclave in the south of Chile.

Rights groups say the colony's leaders helped with the repression of left-wing activists during military rule.

It is thought dozens of bodies were buried at the enclave formerly known as Colonia Dignidad, but later moved.

Last year, the state took control of the enclave. Its former head, Paul Schaefer, is in jail charged with child abuse and human rights violations.

(more at link below)

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4577292.stm>

[KoKo]

18. This article says Schaefer is a Baptist Preacher... That rules out Opus

Dei, it would seem. I don't know of many German Baptists so he seems to have always been an oddball. Dreadful story. And, that this group was doing this for so long.

----------


Paul Schaefer, a former Nazi and Baptist preacher, established the 13,000-hectare (32,000-acre) colony in southern Chile in 1961, after fleeing Germany to escape child abuse charges.

Most of the commune's residents are believed to have been held there against their will.

A Chilean congressional report has said that Colonia Dignidad operated as a "state within a state" during General Augusto Pinochet's regime, thanks to Mr Schaefer's close ties to the country's ruling elite.

[Up2Late]

20. Could just be what he is this year, the guy's a Con-man...

...so he could be both, or neither.

He sounds more like a Satan worshiper, or just someone with a serious Messianic complex.

This guy is just Evil.