Chilean Church seeks clemency for aging prisoners (Pinochet regime officials)

Chilean Church seeks clemency for aging prisoners
By CARLA CANDIA
The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 21, 2010; 5:13 PM

SANTIAGO, Chile -- Chile's Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday urged President Sebastian Pinera to grant a sweeping pardon to aged and long-serving inmates - and the fact it would aid military officers who committed crimes against humanity has angered relatives of their victims.

Families of people who were slain or who vanished during Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship protested outside La Moneda palace as Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz and Monsignor Alejandro Goic, president of the Episcopal Conference, met with the president.

"Our proposal is not meant to open up wounds of the past, nor to make them heal by decree," Goic said of the plan, which is designed to mark Chile's 200-year independence celebrations Sept. 18 with a display of clemency. But the wounds of the past remain bitter for many Chileans.

According to official statistics, 3,065 opponents of Pinochet's right-wing regime were killed and 1,200 more disappeared. Some 600 military personnel have been accused of crimes against humanity but no more than 150 are now in prison.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/21/AR2010072104990.html