wfn.org | Chile: Reports on Disappearances Handed over to Supreme Court

[FRANKI@elca.org]

Victims Were Thrown into Sea, Rivers or Lakes

SANTIAGO, Chile/GENEVA, 17 January 2001 (LWI) - Chile's Supreme Court has
received documentation prepared by the military, churches and religious
communities on the disappearances of some 1,000 persons during General
Augusto Pinochet's 1973-90 rule.

State President Ricardo Lagos who handed over the reports and papers to the
court said the data represents an important step in discerning the fate of
the many opponents to the military dictatorship who are still missing. He
called on the army to provide more information on the disappearances saying
that what it had submitted was worthy of attention, but was not quite
sufficient.

Representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, the Jewish community,
Protestant congregations and the Freemasons presented the documentation to
President Lagos at the presidential palace La Moneda on Friday, 5 January
2001. Monsignor Pablo Lizama, a Roman Catholic bishop for the military,
submitted the army and police reports.

President Lagos expressed his personal sorrow over the "cruel and painful
truths" which have now been brought to light. Lagos confirmed that the new
documents contain information on the fate of around 180 people who
disappeared without trace during Pinochet's dictatorship. Some 130 dead had
immediately been dumped "into the sea and into Chilean rivers and lakes," he
said. Twenty corpses were buried in an as yet undisclosed mass grave near
the capital, Santiago.

These new reports resulted from agreements reached during a round table
discussion on human rights. After months of negotiations with human rights
advocates, the Chilean military last year in June agreed to provide
information on the disappearances. Since 6 June 2000 those responsible for
the crimes or who knew about them, and were willing to testify, could
approach priests, rabbis, pastors or lodge brothers or give their evidence
within the military structure. Although unanimously approved by the
government and parliament, the process was criticised by an association of
the victims' relatives after anonymity was guaranteed to military personnel
who testified.

Chile's Catholic Archbishop Francisco Javier Errazuriz and Methodist Bishop
Neftali Aravena criticised the military's silence, noting the relatively low
number of testimonies despite the specific implication of the armed forces
and police. Victims' families said that information provided was
contradictory and insufficient. The Chilean press was similarly disappointed
over the army's report. Most of the cases mentioned by the military took
place in the first six months following the September 1973 coup. These
excluded any that were linked to the Dina secret police, since dissolved,
but which at the time was particularly feared, the daily newspaper La
Tercera reports.

In view of the hundreds of still unresolved cases, President Lagos urged all
those who had either perpetrated such crimes or who knew of them to come
forward. Victims' families would finally know what had happened to their
loved ones, those implicated could clear their consciences at the same time
helping all Chilean people to deal with this national trauma, he stressed.
"Chile cannot face the future without clearing away the shadow of the past."

Supreme Court President Hernan Alvarez announced that judges would be
empowered to order investigations although it was not clear whether this
would lead to litigation. Judge Hector Carreno began a search for victims'
graves on January 11, Chilean newspapers reported. He started out in Cuesta
Barriga, where according to information provided by the military, six
communist party members that had been murdered by the secret police in 1976
were buried.

A 1978 amnesty granted to Pinochet for unlawful killings and human rights
violations does not cover disappearances. Such issues are legally considered
as unsolved cases of kidnapping. This interpretation of the amnesty had
caused contention in Chile, and had impeded investigations for years. But
large sections of the justice department, meanwhile, including Pinochet's
former Justice Minister Monica Madariaga, have given their support to a
reinterpretation. They insist that an official pardon can be granted only
for crimes of which one has already been convicted.

A total of 205 criminal charges have been brought against the former
dictator's regime. Another is currently in preparation concerning the
infamous "Death Caravan", a military group that crossed Chile soon after the
1973 coup and the ousting of socialist President Salvador Allende. At the
time of the squad, at least 72 members of the opposition were murdered and
18 disappearances took place.

Pinochet, 85, has undergone court-ordered medical tests to determine his
ability to stand trial for alleged human rights violations that occurred
during his regime. Any person in Chile over the age of 70 years facing legal
action is entitled to a mental health examination that would exempt
prosecution if they were to be declared unfit.

More than 3,000 people were murdered during Pinochet's 17-year rule. In the
early years after the military coup, particularly trade unionists,
socialists and communists were subjected to brutality. To date, of the
estimated 1,200 opponents to the regime who disappeared, only 171 have been
traced.

(This article is based on reports by SEPCH (Servicio EvangTlicho de Prensa
Chile) and epd (Evangelischer Pressedienst, Germany).

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