CHILE: Pinochet's victims demand justice

SANTIAGO -- On July 5, I chanced upon a demonstration outside the national office of the Democratic Concertation, the ruling political coalition in Chile. Patricia Silva from the Association of Relatives of Murdered Political Prisoners, one of the sponsors of the action, explained why they were protesting.

“We are occupying these offices to demand truth and justice. President Lagos is saying that if the military and police just reveal where they hid the bodies of the people that they illegally detained, tortured and murdered during the dictatorship [of General Augusto Pinochet] then all will be forgiven and forgotten.

“This is an insult to the thousands of innocent people who were Pinochet's victims. It is a cynical attempt to rehabilitate the Chilean security forces in public opinion. Their image as kidnappers, torturers and criminals is well deserved and renowned.”

Silva gave me a pamphlet with the names of hundreds of former and currently serving security officials who had carried out executions and torture.

After thanking the demonstrators, I had only gone a little way when a women leaned from an office window and said to me, “It's a disgrace what the government is trying to do. Everybody knows what the army and the police did. They will never hide the truth. Good on the protesters.”

BY STEPHEN MARKS

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