Posted on 05/13/2005 9:31:24 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - The head of the secret police under Gen. Augusto Pinochet said in a court document that the former dictator was responsible for the abuses committed by the feared security service, his lawyer said Friday.
Retired Gen. Manuel Contreras also submitted a document to the Supreme Court disclosing the fate of more than 500 dissidents who disappeared after being arrested by his force, said Juan Carlos Manns, Contreras' lawyer.
The report confirmed that many of the victims were thrown into the sea after being killed - a disclosure that had already been made last year by a presidential investigative commission.
Manns said his imprisoned client put the responsibility for the abuses on Pinochet and the other military commanders. In the document, Contreras said he was writing to counter "the permanent, ominous silence maintained by my superior," referring to Pinochet.
The government said it would be up to the courts to determine the accuracy of the information contained in Contreras' statement.
Contreras, 75, commanded the feared secret service known as Dina that is blamed for the worse human rights abuses during the first years of Pinochet's 1973-90 dictatorship.
He is currently serving a 15-year prison term for the assassination of a dissident. Several other officers in the security service have been tried or convicted, and some are now serving prison terms.
Pinochet, who took power in a bloody Sep. 11, 1973, military coup, has been indicted twice, but the trials were stopped by the courts on health grounds.
Contreras' disclosure will do little to satisfy the key demand of the relatives of the missing detainees, which is to learn the whereabouts of their loved ones and recover their remains.
Contreras, his lawyer said, "assumes the responsibility he may have as commander of the security service, but at the same time exempts from responsibility a number of other military officers who were assigned to carry on duties ordered by the military junta" led by Pinochet.
Pinochet has refused to take responsibility for the abuses, saying they were the work of subordinates.
According to a report by the civilian government that succeeded Pinochet, 3,190 people were killed for political reasons during his 17-year rule.
The Commies just won't give up on Pinochet. They've never forgiven him for not allowing a Marxist President to destroy the country and then turning Chile into the most stable and prosperous nation in South America. Twice in this short story, Pinochet's security service was described as "feared." You would never see a MSM story describing Castro's far more ominous internal police as "feared."
I guess I indirectly blame Pinochet for the smarmy crap that Isabelle Allende passes off as literature and for the incessant yammering of that line-reader Meryl Streep whining about it.
Pinochet was necessary, and I am glad he was there at the time.
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