12/06/2012

Chileans protest over Pinochet film

Chileans protest over Pinochet film

Pascale Bonnefoy June 12, 2012 Read later

Protesters near the cinema where the pro-Pinochet documentary premiered. Photo: AP

HUNDREDS of people have protested near a theatre where supporters of the former dictator Augusto Pinochet attended the screening of a proPinochet documentary, reflecting the divisions that still exist in Chile almost 40 years after he seized power in a bloody coup. The police sealed off the area around the Caupolican Theatre, where demonstrators tried to block people from entering the theatre, throwing eggs, spitting on them and shouting ''assassins'' and ''fascists''. Pinochet loyalists held banners and sculptures of the dictator and chanted derisive slogans about more than 1000 people reported to have disappeared during his rule. At least 64 people were reported to have been arrested and 20 police officers and two civilians were injured. ''We owe our lives to Pinochet - he was a good president,'' said Carmencita, who didn't give her last name fearing trouble with neighbours. ''Pinochet put this country in order with a good economy, and that persists today.'' The documentary film Pinochet was sponsored by an organisation of retired military officers and the September 11 Corporation, a group named for the date of the 1973 coup. It reportedly invited right-wing political figures from the United States, Spain, France and Argentina to the screening, and two pro-Franco figures from Spain attended and spoke at the event. Human rights organisations and leftist politicians had called on the government to bar the screening, but the right-wing administration of President Sebastian Pinera said it had to respect the organisers' rights of free assembly and expression. Even so, a government spokesman, Andres Chadwick of the right-wing Independent Democratic Union party, or UDI, expressed remorse that the party he had helped found had backed Pinochet. Official human rights reports established that more than 3000 people were killed or disappeared during the Pinochet years, and that nearly 40,000 more were tortured. NEW YORK TIMES

smh.com.au//chileans-protest-over

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