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Pinochet soldiers ready to confess
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/11/2009112568247503.html
Hundreds of former Chilean military conscripts have offered to reveal details of crimes they committed and witnessed during the late General Augusto Pinochet's rule.
The former soldiers, who served in the army during Pinochet's 1973 coup against Salvador Allende, the then president of Chile, made the offer to talk during a demonstration on Sunday to seek financial and medical benefits from the state.
They said they would reveal details such as where bodies of victims were buried, but only if their safety is guaranteed, fearing that they could face prosecution or retaliation by the former superiors who they claimed ordered them to torture and kill political prisoners.
Using their confessions as a bargaining chip, the former participants in the "dirty war" hope to improve their chances of securing benefits from pensions to psychological treatment. They gathered in the business district of the capital, Santiago, on Sunday for a meeting where Fernando Mellado, the president of the Association of Former Conscripts, informed them that there had not been any progress in talks with the authorities. Mellado told the Associated Press news agency that all efforts to obtain a pension increase for the years they served in the army or medical assistance - especially psychological care - had failed.
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