CHILE: Chile bids emotional farewell to Pinochet, wake, protests continue

Thousands of Chileans, some praying and many in tears, filed past the coffin of Augusto Pinochet on Monday (December 11) as his family criticized the government for denying the former dictator a state funeral. Pinochet, who polarized Chile during his repressive 17-year rule from 1973-1990 when more than 3,000 people were killed in political violence, died on Sunday (December 10) after suffering a heart attack a week earlier. He was News of his death prompted some Chileans to dance in the streets and others to weep, as his legacy is still hotly debated more than three decades after he swept to power in a swift and violent coup. Some Chileans say the general saved their country from communism while others regard him as a murderer who escaped justice and should have been tried for human rights abuses. President Michelle Bachelet said there would be no official mourning and the general would be given a military but not a full state funeral. "We have asked for official mourning days and they did not give them to us. Therefore, President Bachelet has to understand that she has stopped being, with her attitude, the President of all Chileans. She is the president of the Concertacion (Bachelet's party) because 50 percent of us exist that don't feel understood but fooled," said Pinochet supporter and UDI Party Deputy, Ivan Moreira. On Monday, minor clashes between pro- and anti-Pinochet groups continued as emotions ran high. Bachelet, who survived one of Pinochet's most notorious detention centers, will not attend Tuesday's (December 12) funeral but her defense minister Vivianne Blanlot will. Bachelet called for reconciliation at a news conference on Monday. "In the last hours we have seen gestures of division which we do not like, but I know that we have as a country, as a society, ethical strength to rediscover each other, that is the greatness of a country, the greatness is the intimate will of rediscovery based on historical truth and the presidents of Chile should think of everyone in our past, in our future," she said. But her Interior Minister, Velisario Velasco, defended the decision not to give Pinochet a state funeral. "He is going to pass into history as a dictator, a classic right wing dictator that greatly violated human rights was charged with embezzlement. That has been the tonic by right wing dictators in Latin America," he said. During Pinochet's rule some 28,000 people were tortured and hundreds of thousands of Chileans went into exile. The general's supporters say his coup was necessary to save Chile from chaos and possible civil war. They also highlight the free-market reforms of the Pinochet era, saying they lay the foundations for the country's long-term political stability and strong economy rare in South America. As well as facing charges of murder and torture, Pinochet was more recently accused of tax fraud and embezzlement related to $27 million stashed in foreign bank accounts. But he died without being brought to trial as his defense lawyers argued he was too ill to face charges.

ITN Source | December 12, 2006

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