Testimony on State Torture, Imprisonment Shocks Chile
The documentation of state-sponsored torture during a right-wing dictatorship in Chile caused a stir.
SANTIAGO, Chile - A massive official report containing 35,000 testimonials of alleged political imprisonment or torture during Chile's right-wing dictatorship caused a stir Wednesday when President Ricardo Lagos received it, the first-ever government-sponsored recounting.
Lagos said Chile could bear the soul-searching that's likely to be sparked by testimony from thousands of Chileans who say they were tortured during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's 17-year rule.
Human rights groups criticized Lagos for not making the findings public immediately. He said he wanted a few weeks to review them first and find ways to compensate the victims.
Throughout South America, left-leaning governments such as Lagos' have been elected in the past five years. They're now seeking a full accounting of human rights abuses and disappearances in the 1970s and '80s, when right-wing dictatorships suppressed leftists and other opponents.
Those who testified before Chile's National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture described how Pinochet's regime tortured opponents, real or perceived. Earlier this month, army brass acknowledged for the first time that the abuse was institutional, not the excesses of a few individuals.
Lagos, a Duke University-educated socialist leading a centrist coalition, is the first Chilean president to fully investigate and seek redress for victims of the Pinochet dictatorship, which began on Sept. 11, 1973, with U.S. help and lasted until 1990.
On Wednesday, Lagos said Chileans should be proud of themselves. ''How many countries have ventured to deeply examine their history? How many countries have ventured to get to the bottom of what happened? Chile has ventured. It's a solid country, stable. We can do it,'' he said.
After Chile returned to democracy, an independent commission in 1991 placed the number of opponents and soldiers killed during Pinochet's rule at 3,197. But until the new report there was no look at offenses short of killings.
In response to the report, the dictatorship's feared first intelligence chief, Manuel Contreras, denied Wednesday that Pinochet's regime had sponsored torture.
''In the National Intelligence Headquarters there was not political torture nor detaining of people to kill them or anything like that,'' Contreras said as he left a Santiago courtroom where he'd received a 15-year sentence for the kidnapping of an opposition politician in December 1974.
Luis Navarro, one of the thousands of Chileans whom the torture commission interviewed this year, told Knight Ridder he was a photographer with the Roman Catholic Church's human rights office in 1981 when he was kidnapped. He testified that he was taken to a jail run by the state intelligence agency, held incommunicado for five days, blindfolded, deprived of sleep, tortured and drugged.
''They punctured my gums; I felt them puncturing them. Later, my teeth fell out, one by one. And I didn't have cavities,'' Navarro said. ``I have nightmares even today. It's been difficult to have to remember this.''
The Ethical Commission Against Torture, a Chilean group that represents torture victims, on Wednesday released a letter calling on Lagos to provide monetary reparations to victims as well as medical and psychological assistance. The group estimates that 1,200 torture centers operated during Pinochet's rule. The state should identify the 3,600 soldiers or agents who oversaw those torture operations and bring them to justice, the letter said.
Amnesty laws protecting past military leaders from prosecution are being revoked in Argentina.
BY HELEN HUGHES AND KEVIN G. HALL
Knight Ridder News Service
Hughes reported from Santiago; Hall from Rio de Janeiro
SANTIAGO, Chile - A massive official report containing 35,000 testimonials of alleged political imprisonment or torture during Chile's right-wing dictatorship caused a stir Wednesday when President Ricardo Lagos received it, the first-ever government-sponsored recounting.
Lagos said Chile could bear the soul-searching that's likely to be sparked by testimony from thousands of Chileans who say they were tortured during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's 17-year rule.
Human rights groups criticized Lagos for not making the findings public immediately. He said he wanted a few weeks to review them first and find ways to compensate the victims.
Throughout South America, left-leaning governments such as Lagos' have been elected in the past five years. They're now seeking a full accounting of human rights abuses and disappearances in the 1970s and '80s, when right-wing dictatorships suppressed leftists and other opponents.
Those who testified before Chile's National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture described how Pinochet's regime tortured opponents, real or perceived. Earlier this month, army brass acknowledged for the first time that the abuse was institutional, not the excesses of a few individuals.
Lagos, a Duke University-educated socialist leading a centrist coalition, is the first Chilean president to fully investigate and seek redress for victims of the Pinochet dictatorship, which began on Sept. 11, 1973, with U.S. help and lasted until 1990.
On Wednesday, Lagos said Chileans should be proud of themselves. ''How many countries have ventured to deeply examine their history? How many countries have ventured to get to the bottom of what happened? Chile has ventured. It's a solid country, stable. We can do it,'' he said.
After Chile returned to democracy, an independent commission in 1991 placed the number of opponents and soldiers killed during Pinochet's rule at 3,197. But until the new report there was no look at offenses short of killings.
In response to the report, the dictatorship's feared first intelligence chief, Manuel Contreras, denied Wednesday that Pinochet's regime had sponsored torture.
''In the National Intelligence Headquarters there was not political torture nor detaining of people to kill them or anything like that,'' Contreras said as he left a Santiago courtroom where he'd received a 15-year sentence for the kidnapping of an opposition politician in December 1974.
Luis Navarro, one of the thousands of Chileans whom the torture commission interviewed this year, told Knight Ridder he was a photographer with the Roman Catholic Church's human rights office in 1981 when he was kidnapped. He testified that he was taken to a jail run by the state intelligence agency, held incommunicado for five days, blindfolded, deprived of sleep, tortured and drugged.
''They punctured my gums; I felt them puncturing them. Later, my teeth fell out, one by one. And I didn't have cavities,'' Navarro said. ``I have nightmares even today. It's been difficult to have to remember this.''
The Ethical Commission Against Torture, a Chilean group that represents torture victims, on Wednesday released a letter calling on Lagos to provide monetary reparations to victims as well as medical and psychological assistance. The group estimates that 1,200 torture centers operated during Pinochet's rule. The state should identify the 3,600 soldiers or agents who oversaw those torture operations and bring them to justice, the letter said.
Amnesty laws protecting past military leaders from prosecution are being revoked in Argentina.
BY HELEN HUGHES AND KEVIN G. HALL
Knight Ridder News Service
Hughes reported from Santiago; Hall from Rio de Janeiro
posted by R7 | 11/12/2004 05:00:00 AM
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