Victims of Chile terror identified
-16/11/04
An eight-person National Commission on Poli
Victims of Chile terror identified
-16/11/04
An eight-person National Commission on Political Prisoners and Torture, chaired by Roman Catholic Bishop Sergio Valech, has identified some 35,000 victims of General Augusto Pinochetís military dictatorship from 1973 to 1990.
The Commission, established by the government in 2003, is the latest stage in a long effort to investigate, publish and condemn the systematic murder and torture of civilians under Pinochet, who came to power with the assistance of the US when the democratically elected socialist administration of Salvador Allende was overthrown in a military coup.
Several church leaders, Christian base groups, human rights organisations and the Association of Families of the Dead and Disappeared have welcomed the report as further progress in the quest for truth and reconciliation ñ even thought its findings have still not been publicly unveiled.
Pinochetís junta has long divided Chilean society. Beneficiaries of his authoritarian monetarist revolution, which was loudly supported by former British PM Margaret Thatcher and late US president Ronald Reagan, have seen him as a hero. He was backed by some sections of the church, too.
But the poor, grassroots Christians, progressive Bishops and those working for peace and justice have long condemned him for the violence and divisiveness of his rule.
Some 3,500 persons are known to have been killed in torture centres and on the streets during the CIA-supported coup, which took place on 11 September 1973.
General Pinochet was for a period held under house arrest in Britain as art of complex legal manoeuvres to extradite him for trial. But he was eventually released by then Labour home secretary Jack Straw, to the outrage of human rights campaigners.
Victims of Chile terror identified
-16/11/04
An eight-person National Commission on Political Prisoners and Torture, chaired by Roman Catholic Bishop Sergio Valech, has identified some 35,000 victims of General Augusto Pinochetís military dictatorship from 1973 to 1990.
The Commission, established by the government in 2003, is the latest stage in a long effort to investigate, publish and condemn the systematic murder and torture of civilians under Pinochet, who came to power with the assistance of the US when the democratically elected socialist administration of Salvador Allende was overthrown in a military coup.
Several church leaders, Christian base groups, human rights organisations and the Association of Families of the Dead and Disappeared have welcomed the report as further progress in the quest for truth and reconciliation ñ even thought its findings have still not been publicly unveiled.
Pinochetís junta has long divided Chilean society. Beneficiaries of his authoritarian monetarist revolution, which was loudly supported by former British PM Margaret Thatcher and late US president Ronald Reagan, have seen him as a hero. He was backed by some sections of the church, too.
But the poor, grassroots Christians, progressive Bishops and those working for peace and justice have long condemned him for the violence and divisiveness of his rule.
Some 3,500 persons are known to have been killed in torture centres and on the streets during the CIA-supported coup, which took place on 11 September 1973.
General Pinochet was for a period held under house arrest in Britain as art of complex legal manoeuvres to extradite him for trial. But he was eventually released by then Labour home secretary Jack Straw, to the outrage of human rights campaigners.