Fed: Pinochet's death no solace for Chilean exiles

AAP General News (Australia)
12-11-2006
Fed: Pinochet's death no solace for Chilean exiles

By Claudia Ferraz

SYDNEY, Dec 11 AAP - The death of former dictator Augusto Pinochet has brought no relief
to some Chileans who resettled in Australia during his regime.

Ruben Caceres, 51, came to Australia from Chile in 1975, with his parents as an 18-year-old,
two years after Pinochet seized power, but said he brought with him the bad memories from
that time.

Pinochet died today at the age of 91.

"Finally he is dead, but it is not a relief because you can't forget the bad memories,"

said Mr Caceres, who now lives in Sydney.

"I will never forgive the government because he had never been put on trial.

"If you commit a crime you have to pay for it, it makes me sad that he never did."

Mr Caceres now acts as the president of Teletron, an association that helps disabled
people back in Chile.

He said his family had not been running from the military dictatorship, but they had
felt great sadness at leaving people behind.

"Luckily I left two years after Pinochet took control of the country, but I was worried
about my family and friends in Chile because I was enjoying (life) here and they were
left there," Mr Caceres said.

"I saw a lot people dying.

"There was too many shootings in the streets, too many people disappeared, too many
people got killed.

"People were thrown from helicopters into the ocean."

Mr Caceres returned to Chile 10 years ago and said it was very different.

"People in favour of Pinochet are blind," he said.

"They will never feel sorry."

Eduardo Gonzales, publisher of the Spanish-language newspaper Extra Informativo, said
Pinochet's death would not mean the end of the divisions among the Chilean people.

"I believe that those divisions will continue, there will not be a sudden healing," he said.

Mr Gonzalez said Pinochet was a sinister figure who never faced the responsibility
of the abuses committed during his regime.

"He used every trick in the book to avoid facing the tribunals of justice," he said.

"Not only the tortures and the murders, but also the money he accumulated in a foreign
bank makes him a figure not just controversial but downright sinister."

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KEYWORD: CHILE PINOCHET AUST

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