UNITED COLOURS?

Think Benneton and you think great adverts, funky magazines and all with a sort of cool multicultural vibe, right?

Maybe not.

Luciano Benetton, the Italian textile magnate, has agreed to give up 6,200 acres of land in Argentina to end an indigenous land rights controversy which risked wrecking his company's caring image.

Mr Benetton said he was putting the land at the disposal of Argentina's Nobel peace prize winner, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, whose campaign against the fashion house gave the row worldwide prominence.
The concession was announced two days before a meeting of Nobel laureates in Rome which would have given Mr Pérez Esquivel a fresh opportunity to embarrass the Benettons.

The Mapuche have suffered repression and abuse for years.

A statement by Mr Pérez Esquivel's Buenos Aires-based Foundation for the Service of Peace and Justice yesterday said: "No one can be a guarantor of lands that always belonged to the Mapuche. The Mapuche concerned have travelled to Italy, they are the ones who must decide whether to accept this offer."

Go here for the full story on the Mapuche's struggle...

Indymedia Argentina
Indymedia Italy