CHILE: Thousands celebrate, thousands mourn and clashes break out following the death of ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet

Former dictator Augusto Pinochet, who polarized Chile during his repressive 1973-1990 military rule and spent his old age fighting human rights, fraud and corruption charges, died on Sunday (December 10) at 91 years old. Thousands of Chileans danced in the streets of the capital while others wept outside the military hospital where Pinochet died, in a sign of how much he still divides his country. Pinochet, a diabetic who had been in frail health for years, had an angioplasty procedure a week ago after suffering a heart attack. Pinochet, the most notorious of the military leaders who dominated South America through much of the Cold War, grabbed power in a U.S.-supported coup in 1973 after planes bombed the government palace and socialist President Salvador Allende shot himself shortly afterward. Soon after the coup Pinochet's secret police began torturing and killing leftists and dissidents and his rule eventually became synonymous with human rights abuses, especially disappearances, when opponents were taken into custody and never seen again. Planning for Pinochet's funeral created a protocol dilemma for centre-left President Michelle Bachelet, whose father died after being tortured in a Pinochet prison and who herself went into exile after being arrested and held in a torture centre. The government decided on a middle road -- military honours without a state funeral for Pinochet -- so as not to anger his supporters or his victims. Government spokesman Ricardo Lagos Weber said Pinochet would be cremated and Bachelet's defense minister would attend the funeral. "The Chilean government informs that according to the current legal framework, it has been determined that the deceased former general shall receive the honours of a former commander in chief of the Army --according to Army regulations. The remains of the former chief of state will be taken to the military academy where a chapel will be in place until Tuesday when a Mass will be celebrated at noon," said Weber. Police lined the streets near the Escuela Militar military college where the funeral will be held on Tuesday. More than 3,000 people died in political violence under Pinochet's rule. Some 28,000 people were tortured in secret detention centres and hundreds of thousands of Chileans went into exile. Pinochet was accused of dozens of human rights violations -- and more recently of tax fraud and embezzlement related to $27 million stashed in foreign bank accounts. But a long effort to bring him to trial in Chile failed as his defense lawyers argued that he was too ill to face charges. Near the government palace in Santiago, anti-Pinochet demonstrators lit bonfires and threw metal bars and bottles at police, who responded with tear gas, blasts from water cannons and four arrests. Among the thousands celebrating near Santiago's Plaza Italia were students who were not born when Pinochet stepped down in 1990, as well as older people who were victims of his dictatorship. Guillermo Tellier, president of Chile's small Communist Party, said "he died with a dirty conscience." Despite Pinochet's human rights record, many Chileans loved him, saying he saved the country from Marxism. Supporters believe his economic reforms put Chile on track to become a model of political stability during the last 16 years of democracy. Over a thousand weeping supporters gathered outside the military hospital, singing the national anthem and praises to their deceased general. Pinochet was under house arrest in connection with one of the rights cases against him for his 91st birthday in November. At the time he issued a statement suggesting he realized his death could be near. In the statement, he accepted "political responsibility" for acts committed during his rule.

ITN Source | December 11, 2006

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