Friday 31 August 2012

Chile Admits Irregularities in Identifying Disappeared Persons

Santiago, Chile - Chilean authorities admitted today the persistence of irregularities in the identification of bodies of the disappeared, with the resulting trauma for relatives, victims of the genocide committed by the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990).

These irregularities will mean that 14 families will have to return the remains of those they thought were their beloved ones, as already happened in 2006, according to www.biobiochile.cl.

The source refers to a meeting held yesterday by minister of the Appeals Court of Santiago, Alejandro Solis, with families of the detained-disappeared.

During the meeting, these relatives received information about the proceeding followed to identify 124 bodies that had been buried in the Patio 29th of the General Cemetery, in 1991.

Patricio Bustos, head of the Legal Medical Service, attended the meeting, where it was informed that 51 of the victims had been identified.

Not all those results were positive. "We told 24 families that the remains they had in fact belonged to their relatives, but we had to tell the others that unfortunately mistakes were made in their identification," admitted Solis.

He apologized to the families and lamented the drama brought by this denial, while Bustos announced that in order to identify other bodies we will need to discover bodies belonging to relatives of the victims to obtain bone samples and see whether they match.

"The minister summons the families and informs them immediately to try not to increase a nearly 40 year-long anguish," said Bustos.

The Pinochet regime left some 40,000 victims, including more than 3,000 people killed.

The probe into the illegal burials in Patio 29th started on July 16, 1991, in the wake of a denunciation filed by the Vicaria de la Solidaridad.

Friday 31 August 2012

http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=540243&Itemid=1

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