all of the c's. take away an important 3 points in their quest for a top 4. that's it for me and the news team coming up next we've got a documentary film for you looking at one of chile and germany's darkest shared chapters their colonial. sect you're watching news i'm terry martin thanks for being with us. can you hear me now i guess we can hear you and i love stansted and sunflower we'll bring you uncle our mascot as you've never had to have surprise yourself with what is possible who is magical really what one sack and want also up to 2 people who follow along the way maurice and critics might join us for metals last stop.

somewhere in these woods human remains to be buried under the ground. torture victims who died at the hands of the german sect henchmen of chile's dictator augusto pinochet now witnesses to the crimes of breaking decades of science also off don't know exactly how i knew that this was the most dangerous moment of my life and. to this day the families of the victims are struggling to find out what happened to their loved ones. who want all i want to know is where are you on what happened to you. i can't financially but i have given one away i

want to see mostly because we had to pressure the 2nd leaders who were still alive in order to get enough information we will go by the name of god. but the leaders of colonia dignidad have remain stubbornly taciturn the wings of the city the system is driving it works on all levels down to the smallest detail that. day the place where people cruelly mistreated has become a site for jovial gatherings justice and remembrance up to now any attempts at dealing with the past have been obstructed as we now have it's a regime of injustice that still manages the assets it unlawfully amassed with the blood tears and slave labor of others.

actually an investigation team is on its way to the compound of the former sect colonia dignidad. on the way it passes the colonies parochial schools and a front gate. the soul into this vast. settlement is still guarded just as it used to be. nowadays the sign reads welcome to be very a village. these days colonia dignidad has become a business for agriculture in tunis and. the offices drive deep into the heart of this state. they're looking for mass rides. the ground has been torn up in many places in the tireless search for the dead bodies hastily buried he is some 40 years ago where exactly no one can say

or want. they've taken samples of the soul from various spots it's a never ending task. of world of in which a lens have to face our past but this here could be one of its darkest chapters it's our duty to shed light on it and show it to the world and. so far have had little success in this search for the victims of the sect as well as chile's military regime. she was dictator augusto pinochet had his left wing political opponents of rested on mess at the beginning of the 1970 s. . they were rounded up in places like this stadium in the capital santiago. pinochet had many prisoners tortured and murdered in the cellars of colonia dignidad outwardly the so-called colony of dignity appeared quite pious but in reality it was a strictly guarded sex with corporal punishment slave labor and torture.

led by the pedophile such found a paul shaffer and his closest allies colonia dignidad would closely with a dictator. the very impala titian france use of strauss was said to have been a friend of the set of the german embassy and she was aware of the crimes being committed but still send any who escaped back to the sect it wasn't until decades later in 2016 the germany admitted it's killed. if you really are in 40 years german diplomats at best turned a blind eye that's because shouts they did far too little to protect their fellow citizens in this colony is a colony guitar. course shall freak still lives on the grounds of can only dignidad. he used to be kept here as a slave brutally mistreated and beaten by fellow germans leading the set i think

the work is done designing times they'd even beat me unconscious i was so bloody my clothes stuck to my skin i couldn't sit for weeks i had to lean on my hands and slowly ease myself into a chair. it was enough to drive anyone mad so vanish. post was forced to work 7 days a week there was no regular school for him to attend lessons was staged for recordings so the sex could project a picture perfect community to the outside world just like the many festivities helped to impress visitors. to hellish truth behind this shiny vinnie a still haunts whose chef rick he and he lives here in the grounds because he doesn't know where else to turn he occupies a tiny room with his wife in 2 children despite years of therapy decades of torture

have left the physical and emotional months. we have to say this sometimes my blood pressure shoots up to 180 and i just can't work anymore i simply can't afford to carry on like this i got from the german embassy knew that people like cool shade freak would try to tina's slade's they did nothing to put an end to it. is furious for long and hard to compensation but the state was slow to respond . it's germany's responsibility to make up for 3035 years of cruelty towards children and minors some were just 8 years old but this is a disgrace that marks the german state that if they have to pay for what they've done. only in 2020 digimon you stop paying out financial support to victims like cost a $1.00 off some captain $10000.00 euros. a year to judge model corsa

hence the search for mass graves. during his investigations he stumbled upon this on he has a study sela. course has evaluated witness statements and has certain there was a secret prison below this concrete slab. to. say this is where they brought political prisoners and were 1st they were interrogated then tortured after that many were executed. with 0. cost is now focused on locating the bodies in the woods he's following a new late. yellow one. there are still places where more mass graves could be located. and. that's what a new witness has told us on the oil we haven't found anything yet but we expect to uncover human remains there up on the interest. bodies. from the

1970 s. somewhere in the middle of nowhere the new witness. he has turned to the public to speak openly about the unspeakable horror he experienced in the saying. what he saw he had 1st testified to the investigating judge years ago at the end of the 1970 s. he was ordered by schaefer the head of the sex to help cremate the bodies they dug up. yesterday i was there when the 1st little truck arrived and left. it was full of remains. my. charcoal. bits of bone all mixed together. with. it had been painstakingly scraped up from the ground and to leave no trace behind us. that was loaded onto the truck.

i know the truck drove through a ravine where there used to be an old windmill. there was a ford there that stretched across the river that's where they dumped the 1st. dog . food up the kid. to bash he says all evidence was destroyed but there was one mass grave they couldn't find according to melissa the bodies lying there couldn't be removed or cremated he told the authorities where this mess craft might be as far as he can remember. the archaeologist even cussedness is in charge of searching for the remains. or vehement thinking that with that awful idea they're out the decades since the 1970 s. the forest has renewed itself. in all of us.

but its basic structure has stayed the same he will probably be out of the. bottom not only female meant that we cleared the ground very thoroughly and came across a layer of burnt earth that was much finer than we had expected and we mean were given little to put on one can. and yet this search for 30 mass graves remains unsuccessful this sect was good at covering its tracks. not. for mental building as you know we thought we would find some remains of the corpses no you know not but the sect and the military must have been able to operate completely under stir not in the only seemingly they were virtually invisible i mean that's all hymns and schaefer the sect leader made sure that no ordinary sect member was allowed to see the mass graves but if you let me walk in while they were burning the corpses they claimed that there was

a controlled fire in the forest you know going through the. valley melissa had to help with the cremations it's still pains him today. sunday for uncharted and so i was forced to decide. i could have stood up and said i wouldn't do it. but i knew that this was the most dangerous moment of my life and. i only had a few moments to make up my mind. whether to continue or not we just i don't know who and if. he was afraid of being punished or even killed himself. after melissa statement customers doubled down on his efforts to want comfort the traces of the mass graves. but he has had to contend with a shortage of staff money and expertise.

in order to make some real progress we have to take samples of the charred ground along with other extensive soil samples and send them over to germany you know their forensic specialists could check the samples for traces of d.n.a. that would tell us if people were buried there and who they might have been. that's exactly what the loved ones of the torture victims left behind a fighting for. one see here they travel to the grounds of the 6 to move on. they still don't know what happened to their brothers and sisters this sons and daughters. they cannot bear the thought that their family may have been tossed into an unmarked grave somewhere out there. nor can they be the deafening silence

of so many other witnesses who couldn't find the courage fully melissa did truth seekers like me say it is fernando is a disappointed you know when you look at the name. all i have is one photo of you my son and the question remains where are you what happened to you i can't find you i've searched fever far and wide and i still haven't found a trace of well. at least the crimes are slowly being dealt with from a historical perspective. today mercedes received a special visit to research as a helping conduct to study for the fry université seen berlin they want to learn everything they can about maceda says disappeared some loose. i'm happy i was able to bear witness to remember the past. i want today's

youth to understand that atrocities like this must never be allowed to happen again . but i. must say he still finds it difficult to revisit the past. her son was disappeared 47 years ago ever since she has been fighting for closure she wants clarity on what happened her last till pains her every day. she wants to share everything she knows she talks about how the police took her boy away simply for being a member of a communist student organization whose stories will be added to an oral history are caught with audio and video recordings that serve as a collective memory. they came into our house to grab my son luis an entire patrol of about 50 armed police officers they just took him away.

after researchers found a clue. some of the colonia dignidad files are still kept in the national archives are chilling they include. a filing cabinet with about 25000 index cards. you know future it contains notes taken during interrogations and this only happened once in chile's history so it proves that political prisoners were held in a german camp out of doors at work or. the sites head of information also compiled an index card on the sages the son luis that means they're probably held in prison and. most likely he was also tortured in the 6 underground passageways. now mercedes's relatives have set up a memorial plaque here it's the 1st official memorial on these grounds.

and the military personnel alike used the cellar for their interrogations more often than not they ended in torture and death. only after many years with families finally committed to put up a plan to remember their relatives cribbed files. of all the former 6 members who still live here have already begun preparations for a large memorial site. the torch this summer is being cleared out. there making room for a museum or a place of remembrance. a few kilometers away in the small city of peral families of the victims are fighting to see more commitment from chile's and germany's governments they can't accept how long the search for their loved ones is taking. miss ada's fernandez is also part of the campaign despite her 90 years of age if you're seeing another our

relatives are buried out there somewhere it's our duty to look for them. my mother started searching for my disappeared brother and i swore to her that i would carry on her search. to where your. pain will only end once we find the remains of our family members and if we only find one body the pain we feel today will still be a little less. of a holy man in germany has to help it too is to blame. a german chilean joint task force has been put together but they've only been able to make a little headway. that's because members of the colonia dignidad have been standing in there why. under the pinochet dictatorship the sect had amassed great wealth farming and timber businesses forests and estates and 8 farm and even

a gold mine. to set latest turned over millions in profits. for years the sect was run as a charity then in 1989 the small syndicate of set leaders transferred all assets to a holding group with several stock corporations. it was a complicated web of companies with the sole purpose of maintaining operative and financial control. the colony was renamed v. above year a very a village and the holding group distributed a handful of shares to some of its former slaves. in this letter from 1998 pushing for all of his leadership to make sure that no victims quote would have a right to payments or compensation for decades. this was a measure against disloyalty and dissidents as he put it.

is one such so called decided she was born into the sect to this day she into her husband suffer under the cruelty of over 40 years of forced labor with 0 compensation for the hip damage because of the good back then i just thought it was normal nobody ever explained anything to me that they could get me when handed any work contract so we couldn't ask the right questions or form our own ideas. the children were all inquisitive and bright but the brightest minds were kept sedated with drugs. when she examines her shares all the seitan feels is frustration she was handed $51.00 in total in some day amount to about $3000.00 euros. but my guess is no use to me at all it's just a piece of paper i don't have any say in the matter no voting rights is just a slip of paper. because shafiq was also handed a pittance from his tormentors to make ends meet and he was family somewhat afloat

he works as a beekeeper. and i turn 61 seriously if you're a clock and we don't know how we'll get by. if mesh to understand this well i want everyone to know how schaefer deliberately created a project. designed to keep us all excluded from any of the profits and. such as the share an enormous wealth set to accumulate it or a small plot of land from the sprawling a states. or the very least a payout from. in. all the years we've been shareholders we were always told this belongs to all of us and we believed it because we've never received a single payout. isn't

a normal holding company shareholders buy and sell for profit. this is a completely different scheme that i. was sick to many victims like cost in dollars in 2 handed after 40 years of cruelty and slave labor they are busily pool meanwhile the sick leaders have moved up to managing to rake this in their firm with generous salaries and plenty of clout in the business. and none finance has been investigating the sex crimes for years the way things are now he says it's a disgrace. it's an ongoing injustice people were tortured and murdered here children were abused. you can't turn a place like that into a tourist resort but politicians have remained complicit and the public prosecution has no active role in investigating the crimes committed here. hempel lives in

chile's capital santiago he was also born into the same chain he would suppose a lawyer and he's very outspoken against the new management it would be they jews he says to compensate victims like cost and doris for a lifetime a slave labor. it's a cartel of silence. even today the colonies leadership shares a mafioso like oath of silence and noncompliance and there's nothing we can do about it all the companies all their victims 45 years of wages and 45 years of contributions to pension payment to this day they have not paid out a single cent and. the bulk of the shares went to the 6 leaders in the 1990 s. confidence of the cult leader with an appointed directors. just a few years ago the chilean investor hellebore into the company says the shareholder he was hoping for a profitable investment. only afterwards did he realize that it was

a closed corporation there's no transparency and he has no say in any decisions even though he holds 17 percent of all who share his. more outwardly this web of corporations would want you to believe that they honor inclusive participation ownership rights and democratic decision making. but in truth they're in very serious violation of any code determination regulations and see what. those who run the companies are also their own supervisors. he says the set set up 3 bogus firms so that the head of the board never lost control. and if you simply meant to them or if you got all you have to do is change the share structure. that said in that way all shareholders would have

a real say and the operating companies not just the dummy companies. the video had to be there in a given day it would actually be quite easy. for the. e.c. in theory in reality the management has quietly resisted any sort of opening who are these people today it's mainly the who remain sons of former cult leaders intrusted with carrying on the company legacy from lofty management positions. and can't currently holds the reins of the v. above you know corporation his father court was sentenced to 5 years in prison in chile for systematic abuse and forming a criminal organization. today thomas agrees that the sex assets were distributed unfairly. october tyler was. saying and came over from today's perspective i would say the distribution of shares was not done fairly. back

then the decision was guided by inheritance norms and based on who brought in how much money and unfortunately from today's point of view that's not quite equitable . and there are other former cult members who run parts of the business and see a need for change one of his sisters and a chanel income is responsible for the 2 risen division she's calling for more transparency and justice for victims. my wants is absolute a spirit is i want us to change the old share structure and the way it's disconnected now is unfair and an equal. or. all members should be included in the winnings or any of the company's included in the holding should be able to generate profits that are paid out to the members. but not all directors agree many are still fighting change.

schreiber is another into the management kaja. his father was the financial director of colonia dignidad evaded chilean justice by fleeing to germany. and still has been responsible for the corporation's legal affairs for years. the paper leaked was by a former sect member documents attempts to silence victims the witness explains that former cult members were to exchange quote exclusive rights to their life stories and individual experiences for a plot of land. was just to ensure the past atrocities would remain concealed from public view. wanted to confront hansard struggle with these accusations but he refused to be interviewed who issued a statement on the matter. said its command structure full

sinked indeed so on as does the injustice. before they determine everything ones of all vices sell whatever they want and whenever they want to throw an error and the so called shareholders have no say in the matter mr raydon harm obviously all they care about is keeping everything for themselves homeless. financial benefits at the expense of the sitz forced labor issues why wasn't a corporation dissolved after paul schaefer's a wrist and the assets distributed fairly among former colony members in 2005 this was almost the case after the cult leader was arrested in germany in chile could have at least changed the share structure but the foreign office tells us there was no legal possibility for germany to dissolve the corporation altogether instead

from 2008 onwards the foreign office put forth funds for psychosocial support to remaining residents in addition to social missions money was also provided for business consultancy and for unspecified infrastructure projects. there's also the what people need to know is as of 20042005 the foreign ministry actually supported this corporate structure because they were more worried about the colony they wanted all the settlers to stay and she lay so as to keep the problem out of germany. in 2004 mr and mrs molests have presented an open letter to the 6 members and to jim and diplomats demanded that all assets be dissolved and distributed fairly. in anger to our. we asked them to dissolve the whole mess. and to finally give the people what they were promised in 1st broadwater or us in $200.00 men and what they're entitled to vent their everything was supposed to

belong to everyone and once this holding or whatever it is is dissolved to get my inch of then things can be distributed fairly break get rid of get told to. put their plate fell on deaf ears. just gun if both the youngest with nothing happened they like the idea but they did nothing about it so germany just look the other way. going to exactly just like they did for all those decades thing to do it. many people agree with billy melissa to this day they believe the german state has failed them many 6 members can't comprehend why beer and roast kool could being served to decide was systematic abuse and torture once took place without any attempt at remembrance let alone reparations that was there.

in 2019 digimon bundestag invited tourist site not to belin there she demanded the 6 released funds from his assets and reimburse victims like oh oh. we completely on our own. in my family isn't it sort of us. to start whatever the foreign office has provided any financial support to the colony went straight into tourism and other things i haven't seen one cent not a single one i'm concerned it pains me to see corporations receive that kind of supply while individuals who really deserve it on a prosecutor from. the pickton say that the legacy of cult leader pull schaefer still casts a dark shadow over the dishonest a corporation he's left behind has meant that after a lifetime of slavery they must continue to live in poverty long after his own

death in 2010. but with his will there's a way and so vin freed hempel continues to fight for justice and if a viable we want an administration that seizes all of the colonies assets and manages them in a way that either the proceeds or the assets themselves go to the victims that is all we want and if it were. justice. at least the hunt for mass graves was intensified after villa melissa's confession and judge carlson lacks the money and the manpower for an exhaustive excavation. in germany for years the german government shied away from dealing with the simplest part of this passed. german diplomats actually maintained good relations with paul shaffer and his sect in 2017 the foreign office agreed to collaborate

with chile to create a commission to document the crimes committed we are told that germany had offered chile to analyze soil samples from chile in its give a shit site in german labs at the german government's expense. but so far no samples as they too have arrived. why is the investigation stalling in chile. they're the minister of justice and human rights and my loveline is responsible for moving the investigation forward. is also a long term supporter of the sect. in the 1990 s. he wrote about colonia dignidad we the signatories of this letter greatly appreciate the work that this association has done political scientist has spent

years researching the aftermath of colonia dignidad and considers the minister to be one of the chief obstacles to overcome in the past. as mine as it is the thought of. the other and i think mr lott i mean is keen to keep this issue under wraps and out of the public eye. but this is where this is where i would like to see a greater commitment from the foreign office and of the german government that you all. are more good psych that all this issue would require proactive human rights policies. and a frog one of pork even mentioned i don't see any in place at the moment. moments only see. the bottom line is the gemini is plotting for framing for pressure in chile that sits chile's government just fine minister a lot of rain was not available for an interview he merely informed as to chile had already spent the equivalent of around 390000 euros on excavations and that

cooperation with german experts would begin as soon as possible. the doubts linger of lot i ain't true intentions of dealing with the past of colonia dignidad he was a friend of the sect for decades as documents in a chilean national archive can prove the 6 registry also contains a file on the 918 it says that as a young politician law even visited colonia dignidad shortly before the coup in chile as well as shortly afterwards in 19841975. these were precisely the years in which the dictator had thousands of political opponents of arrested tortured and murdered. some in the very cellars of colonia dignidad. is it possible that laurie and did not notice any of this during his 3 visits. the historian claudio salinas thinks not.

simply they from early on are non law in repeatedly denied and dismissed all the accusations leveled against colonia dignidad. although there were plenty of reports on torture and child abuse at that time. were telling me of the figure. according to the state's records close with one doctor and 2 individuals one albums and 100 most according to experts these were the pitiful cult leader paul shaffer his chief financial officer. and the state's doctor hartmut hope it was in part thanks to love and support that the sect was able to carry on after the pinochet dictatorship ended. it was not until the mid ninety's that the police began to investigate the 1st cases of abuse with raids on the state's premises even then not even threw his weight behind the sect. hoping

that the all of this on the out or the police units and investigators from all over the country want to search the german compound this is without precedent and all because of one single complaint of child abuse and with him in order. the human rights commission of the chilean parliament is someone but the minister did not comply and outrange this human rights activist my 3 tornado. is nearly every call for what they should be mourning in which of justice minister has protected the sect for many years even though he was aware of the crimes committed. in. the system through a. we have the evidence on what's missing is the political will to carry out the prosecution is. that. it's a necessity that human rights and non-financial is also criticizes the action of

those responsible. this is the most dramatic case in recent history neither the minister of justice nor the president or minister of the interior are fulfilling the duties of their office but include them in reside he has the right to demand the crimes of colonia dignidad be prosecuted. calling it deserves compensation clarification and justice and so yeah there are what i see on there. being 3 hempel is losing his patience with how little is being done. the visits were quite pessimistic i don't expect much from minister a lot i mean on the contrary i think he wants to just sweep the whole thing under the raj. at the same time there is not enough money all resources to conduct a proper search for the disappeared torture victims. the relatives left behind and the officials fighting for their restitution feel abandoned. by going to tripoli he

warns the moment to get out the time we demanded the excavation site be protected we say it was declared a national monument but no efforts were made to secure the dignity of. the area remained publicly accessible anyone could get them this simple. personable they even. there's no professional forensics team he had to the phones were lacking. if. the 1st step towards truth and justice would be to return the victims' bodies to their families. if cooperation with germany was more effective we would have made more progress with that you know i will also the remaining sect leaders should be interrogated. only from us and i think they know where the bodies are and could tell us where to look. he. went to be.

that many leading members of the sect to decided to remain silent and not in the german or the chilean justice system seem to have any interest in questioning them . and so the tourist trap remains a place with past horrors a monster behind it did injury. really melissa is one of the few former sit members to tell his story. does he. was the only other kind of. the way i see it i was forced to do this work i had no choice but maybe i wanted to that doesn't mean i need to keep quiet about it now because there. is a kind of i knew that none of the others would say anything. of the captor

i had testified i went to the est. and i told the people there that i had just confessed. they insisted on knowing what exactly i had told the authorities. you know i said everything. i'm empty now minister there i left them to connect the dots they knew what they had done. moses accountable. to the state melissa who was not part of the cults top leadership circle struggles with the question of whether he too was one of the perpetrators. wish to who decides who is a perpetrator and who is a victim of come on the one hand i'm one of the perpetrators.

but on the other hand i'm also a victim does for the mom most because what i had to do there was awful and i was never given a choice. i was taken by surprise in order to put on the spot say for hadn't told me what kind of work i'd be doing where you could indicate what he does or not what mom. you know you know. the families of the missing torture victims a quite fair to me simply his testimony. thanks to his courage they might eventually find within for the tips have been read. in. the gallery also i remember when i spoke out because i felt it was my duty to lift the veil of secrecy. and give back what belongs to those or more families.

good to go they deserve to know where their loved ones have gone. what do you believe more. or less i have the courage to confess as long as others tremaine silent to brutally conceive colonia dignidad a constant struggle for many years to come. to own. or not to own gold. but what about assuring a color instead. of. the change in thinking is changing the economy to create something new. for the

economics magazine made in germany. 90 minutes d.w. . has a virus spread. why do we panic and when will all this. just through the topics covered in the weekly radio show is called spectrum if you like and the information on the coronavirus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us at. science. life on earth one of a kind and. get a coincidence. where the improbable happened. before was the creation of our solar system with our planet is a bit like winning the lottery such as

a. one 1st for unique starts feb 11th on t.w. . cut. this is deja vu news live from berlin exit donald trump enter. the u.s. prepares to usher in a fresh era with a new president in the white house biden pays tribute to the 400000 victims of covert 19 ahead of an all gratian ceremony that promises to be like no other. also coming up germany extends its lockdown until at least mid february there will be

stricter rules on mask wearing as part of tougher controls to curb new variants of covert 19. it's being called the most lavish cow.