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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Chile's Pinochet Quits Senate After Verdict |
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by Louise Egan
(No verified email address) |
05 Jul 2002
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SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Chile's ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet ( news - web sites) resigned on Thursday as lifetime senator, a post he held onto despite a four-year absence from Congress while fighting a series of legal battles against human rights allegations. |
Pinochet, 86, submitted a letter of resignation to the Senate via a Catholic Church intermediary just three days after the Supreme Court confirmed, in a final verdict, that he was mentally unfit to stand trial for deaths and disappearances under his iron-fisted rule between 1973 and 1990.
Monday's court ruling, which effectively brought an end to attempts to prosecute the general, put Pinochet under pressure from lawmakers to quit as senator.
"His health conditions do not permit him to fully exercise his job as a senator and that is why he has presented his resignation," Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz told reporters after personally delivering Pinochet's letter to Senate President Andres Zaldivar.
Chile's socialist government said the decision was "expected, logical and necessary."
"Today we close a chapter in history. ... We hope that this brings a little more tranquillity to all sectors, " President Ricardo Lagos told reporters at the Santiago airport before heading to Buenos Aires for a Mercosur summit.
The former strongman, now stooped and white-haired, still rouses strong emotions of anger and loyalty among Chileans who remain divided over his legacy. But all agreed that his resignation was a symbolic statement of his willingness to withdraw from public life, for good.
"Even though he wasn't actually working as a senator, in one way or another he continued to influence Chilean politics and it was obvious that with the court's verdict he couldn't continue being a senator," said Senator Jorge Pizarro, a Christian Democrat.
APOLOGIZE FOR DEATHS
For relatives of Pinochet's "disappeared," who for nearly 30 years have been demanding to know what happened to their loved ones, the next step is for him to apologize to the nation for the over 3,000 people who were killed or disappeared under his harsh rule.
"The only thing left for Pinochet to do now is to assume responsibility because as far as we're concerned, he is neither crazy nor demented," said Viviana Diaz, whose father was disappeared under Pinochet.
His friends and family viewed Pinochet's retreat from politics as a conciliatory gesture aimed at ending bitter debate over his figure.
"In the face of attacks, vengeance and hate, General Pinochet responded today with generosity in a gesture that will allow the reconciliation of all Chileans," said Ivan Moreira, deputy of the rightist UDI party.
Roughly a third of Chileans admire Pinochet, believing his bloody 1973 coup rescued them from Marxist rule.
Pinochet wrote the lifetime senate seat for ex-presidents into his 1980 constitution and became the first person to assume the post in 1998 when he resigned as army chief. However, his senatorial career was short-lived because he was arrested in October of that same year in London on an extradition warrant from Spain to face torture charges.
He was released 17 months later on grounds of poor health. The ailing general has rarely made a public appearance since returning to Chile and suffers from a moderate form of dementia and diabetes, according to court-ordered medical exams. |
