Rights outcry over Chile deadline

[Judi Lynn]

Last Updated: Thursday, 14 April, 2005, 14:22 GMT 15:22 UK


Rights outcry over Chile deadline
By Michael Voss
BBC News, Santiago

A country that tries to
forget its own history doesn't
have a future'

Pedro Matta
Torture victim




Tens of thousands of people "disappeared" during military rule

Human rights lawyers in Chile are worried that a large number of investigations into murder and torture allegedly committed by former members of the armed forces may have to close.

Earlier this year the country's Supreme Court ruled that investigators have until July to produce enough evidence to file charges or terminate their inquiries.

Investigators in the United States are continuing their probe into the secret bank accounts of Chile's former President Augusto Pinochet.

But there are now fears that many of the 365 domestic cases involving murder, kidnap and torture during the state of siege in the 1970s may never come to trial.

'Keep silent'

"It's a message to the perpetrators to keep silent. It assures them that by keeping silent the process will come to an end with insufficient evidence and then they will go, walk free," Pedro Matta told the BBC.
(snip/...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4439431.stm