Clashes between Chilean police and local people on Easter Island injure at least 25 people. While trying to evict several indigenous people from buildings they occupied, witnesses say the police fired pellets, when the group refused to leave . Several people were shot at close range with the rubber bullets used by the police.
At least one person was air lifted to the mainland for medical treatment .Edi Tuki, a relative of one of those injured told the Efe news agency,” They injured at least 23 of our brothers and sisters , three of them seriously with one person shot in the eye with a buckshot pellet .” Maka Atan, a Rapa Nui lawyer was shot in the back by pellets and told the associated press ,police had been shooting to kill.
Allegedly the fight is over buildings illegally taken from the ancestors of the Rapa Nui group several generations ago, the Rapa Nui group said that’s why we’re asking for our land to be returned, the land on this island has always been Rapa Nui. The remote island lies more than 2,000 miles off the west coast of Chili and was annexed by Chili in 1888 and is a Unesco World Heritage site .Rapa Nui is the official name for Easter Island that has a population of about 4,000 and is best known for its ancient giant carved stone heads, known as Moais.
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