19 the matter has to be discussed and decided by the Community Council. When a person dies, his or her next of kin become the owners of those things that the deceased person owned. But since lands are collective property of the community, there is no way that one member can freely transmit to another his or her rights in connection with the use of the land. He is not aware of whether his ancestors obtained any title deed. When an agreement was reached between the logging firm Maderas y Derivados de Nicaragua S.A. (MADENSA) (hereinafter “MADENSA”) and the Community, in 1992, the latter stated that it had a property right recognized by the Central Government and by the National Government, because the witness and the other members of the Community feel that they are the true owners of those lands, since they have lived on them for over 500 years. The Community filed the application before the Inter-American Commission because it required the title deed which it had requested several times and the State had never replied. They hope to obtain a reply based on justice and the rights of indigenous communities. At first they intended to settle the land claim in a friendly manner, but now, having exhausted all means and having reached the level of the Inter-American Court, they await its decision to put an end to this conflict. b. Testimony of Charly Webster Mclean Cornelio, Secretary of the Awas Tingni Territorial Committee The witness was born in Awas Tingni, Nicaragua, and he is a member of the Mayagna Community, which in the Mayagna language means “child of the Sun”. He held the position of Person Responsible for the Forest within the Community, and therefore he protected the forest from harm and cared for the animals. He is currently the Secretary of the Awas Tingni Territorial Committee, and in 1991 he participated, together with the other leaders of the Community, in the making of the map which identifies the territorial limits of the Mayagna Community. The Community he belongs to has 1,016 inhabitants, and is formed by 208 families; only four families are formed by marriages of Miskito men and Mayagna women. The number of inhabitants was determined through a census taken recently by the leaders of the Community. Figures presented by the State, according to a census taken years ago, place the number of members of the Community between 300 and 400, but that is not the current number. The struggle of the Mayagna to attain recognition by the State of their historical right to their lands goes back a long time. Recent efforts to attain respect for their lands include the drafting, without any advisory assistance, of the document “Struggling for Mayagna Sumo”, in which they ask the State to recognize their property rights. This document was made known to Alberto Escobar, who was then the INRA delegate. Subsequently they went to Managua for a dialogue with the Minister of INRA, but they did not obtain the title deed to their land. In 1992 the Community signed a contract with the MADENSA firm, with no advisory assistance. The leaders of the Community stated to the representatives of MADENSA that they had title to those lands in the sense that they had a right to them through historical possession. Then they signed another agreement with MADENSA, with advisory assistance from and participation by MARENA, which committed itself to helping the Community in the demarcation of its territory, but this commitment was not fulfilled.