socialmedian: Pinochet men to reveal regime secrets

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Source: The Guardian

Nov 03, 2009

Summary

In return for pensions or immunity from prosecution, veterans say they will testify about crimes of Chilean dictatorship

Former conscripts in Chile have offered to reveal details of murders and other crimes sanctioned under Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in a move that could lead to some of the men receiving pensions and immunity from prosecution in return.

The ex-soldiers say they want to end almost four decades of silence and share harrowing secrets about abuses they committed and witnessed. Some want to unburden their conscience, others to obtain immunity from possible prosecution or gain pensions and healthcare.

Hundreds gathered in front of the presidential palace in the capital, Santiago, at the weekend to seek official recognition that they too were victims of the regime.

"Perhaps today is the day when the moment has come for us to describe what we saw and how we suffered inside the military bases, the things that we witnessed and that we did," Fernando Mellado, who leads the Santiago chapter of the veterans' group the Former Soldiers of 1973, told Associ

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