Chilean judges apologize for actions under Pinochet

PanARMENIAN.Net - The body representing judges in Chile has made an unprecedented apology for the actions of its members under military rule in the 1970s and 1980s, BBC News said.

"To those who were victims of state abuse ...the time has come to ask for the forgiveness of victims ... and of Chilean society," said the Chilean Judges' Association in a statement almost 40 years after the September 11, 1973, coup that toppled elected socialist Salvador Allende, according to AFP.

Pinochet then took the helm of the South American country, remaining there until 1990.

"It must be said and recognized clearly and completely: the court system and especially the Supreme Court at that time, failed in their roles as safeguards of basic human rights, and to protest those who were victims of state abuse," the judges said.

More than 3,000 people were killed under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet between 1973 and 1990.

The statement by the National Association of Magistrates of the Judiciary comes a week before the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought General Pinochet to power.

The magistrates' association acknowledged that the Chilean judiciary could and should have done much more to safeguard the rights of those persecuted by the dictatorship.

Chilean courts rejected about 5,000 cases seeking help on locating missing loved ones abducted or killed by the authorities.

Critics say their usual response was they had no information about their fate.

Chile's current centre-right government has said the country will officially recognize the anniversary of the coup.

President Sebastian Pinera said last month that the coup on 11 September 1973 was "a historical fact" and its 40th anniversary should be a time of "reflection."

The announcement came after the conservative senator and former president of the Independent Democratic Union, Hernan Larrain, apologized for his party's actions. "I ask for forgiveness," he said. "This is my voice for reconciliation."