Santiago, Chile, Jun 2, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Sergio Valech Aldunate of Santiago, Chile, called for a “new era of reconciliation in the country” this week after the publication of the final report on the use of torture during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and he expressed his hope for solutions “for the problems of the future and that the past be left behind.”
Bishop Valech, who headed the Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture for a year and half, sent the Commission’s final report to President Ricardo Lagos, which was drafted in response to the requests of 7,000 people who suffered incarceration to have their cases reevaluated.
Of these 7,000 cases, the Commission determined that 1,200 people suffered torture, among them 87 children under 12 years of age, who were either detained with their parents, born in prison, or even were still in the womb while their mothers were tortured. In total, more than 28,000 people were affected by the Pinochet regime.
Bishop Valech acknowledged that, “to ask for pardon on behalf of the State is perhaps insufficient.” Those listed in the report will receive economic reparations from the government, he announced.