QUINTERO, Chile (22 Sep 2004) -- Scuba divers off Chile's Pacific Coast found sections of railway track on the ocean floor on Wednesday believed to have been used to sink the bodies of people killed under Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. The search for the rails was ordered by Chilean Judge Juan Guzman who is investigating killings and torture of leftists by secret police during Pinochet's 1973-1990 military rule in which about 3,000 people died. Guzman oversaw the divers on Wednesday as they hauled the rusty steel rails, found about half a mile (1 km) offshore, onto Quintero beach about 90 miles (150 km) northeast of Santiago, said a Reuters photographer who was on the scene. "There are about five pieces of rail between one and two meters long (3-7 feet) and a few other pieces of railway track. There are no human remains or rope," the photographer said. The military admitted in 2001 that during the dictatorship some victims of state violence were dug out of mass graves and dumped into the Pacific Ocean from helicopters, confirming what human rights groups had long suspected. Later court testimony by retired military officials revealed that corpses were strapped to rails to make them sink and hide evidence at a time when family members of victims were seeking clues about the disappearance of their loved ones. Their testimony, which also included grisly details of how the bodies were dug up, helped Guzman locate the area where the rails would be found. Augusto Pinochet | | Augusto Pinochet Guzman is investigating dozens of lawsuits against Pinochet and other former military officials. He sought the rails as evidence in the inquest into the disappearance of the upper ranks of the Chilean Communist Party in the 1970s. The judge is also preparing to question Pinochet himself to determine his level of involvement in a separate case of 19 leftists whom human rights prosecutors say were killed under "Operation Condor," an intelligence-sharing network between South American military regimes. A surprise Supreme Court decision last month to strip Pinochet of his immunity in that case cleared the way for Guzman to proceed with a trial. But in all other cases his immunity still stands. Pinochet, 88, escaped being put on trial in 2001, after his defense convinced the courts he was mentally unfit due to his age and minor strokes. The defense plans to use that same argument in the Operation Condor case, meaning it could be dismissed or turn into a long drawn-out trial at best. SOURCE - Reuters |
