For those of you unfamiliar with world events in the 1970's, in 1973, the democratically elected Government and President of Chile was overthrown by an American organised, backed and funded military coup led by General Pinochet. Thousands were murdered so that American corporate interests would not be affected by the land reform policies of the Allende administration. In recent years, Chile has attempted to come to terms with its past, a task made more difficult by the refusal of perpetrators to admit guilt or divulge information that would lead to parents of the murdered finding out what happened to their children and families. This process of truth and reconciliation just received a major boost, as reported in the
Guardian:
Former conscripts in Chile have offered to reveal details of murders and other crimes sanctioned under Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in a move that could lead to some of the men receiving pensions and immunity from prosecution in return.
The ex-soldiers say they want to end almost four decades of silence and share harrowing secrets about abuses they committed and witnessed. Some want to unburden their conscience, others to obtain immunity from possible prosecution or gain pensions and healthcare.
Hundreds gathered in front of the presidential palace in the capital, Santiago, at the weekend to seek official recognition that they too were victims of the regime.
"Perhaps today is the day when the moment has come for us to describe what we saw and how we suffered inside the military bases, the things that we witnessed and that we did," Fernando Mellado, who leads the Santiago chapter of the veterans' group the Former Soldiers of 1973, told Associated Press.
Mellado said Chile needed to understand what it was like for teenagers drafted into a feared security force which, according to an official count, killed 3,186 people after a US-backed military coup toppled the leftist president Salvador Allende in 1973.
The dead included 1,197 "disappeared", some of whom were dumped from helicopters into the sea or buried at clandestine locations. Less than 8% have been recovered and identified.
"The moment has come for former military draftees to tell our wives, our families, the politicians, the society, the country and the whole world about the brutalities they subjected us to. I believe the moment has come for us to speak, for our personal redemption," said Mellado.
Hiram Villagra, a lawyer for families of the dead and disappeared, welcomed the offer of testimony. "Clearly there is no desire from our part for these soldiers to carry the burden of guilt of the officers, who were the ones who made the decisions," he said.
This is very welcome and long over due. What, one might ask, is the difference between Chile and Taiwan? In Taiwan, those who committed crimes for the government between 1945 and 1987 have never been brought to justice and it is unlikely that they would volunteer to do so now. You have a population that has been brow beaten with an obscurantist mantra to 'not dwell on past misunderstandings ', not face it honestly and with courage. Could it be that there are still too many people in power in Taiwan who have blood in their hands, blood that would be revealed if any effective process of truth and reconciliation were to begin? In this sense then Taiwan resembles Argentina and Chile in the mid-1980's whereby the transition to democracy has been achieved with the consent of former elites but who themselves are not ready to be held to account for their actions in the past. I suspect that there will be a period of truth and reconciliation in Taiwan but that it will happen when everyone responsible for crimes is dead. A process of full disclosure now would simply threaten the reputations and careers of too many people and ultimately crush the KMT politically, since they were the one's solely responsible for the crimes of inhumanity they perpetrated against Taiwanese in their desire to keep the ROC alive.
