Viviana Diaz When Chile returned to democracy in 1990, then President Patricio Aylwin set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It reported that more than 3,000 people had been killed during 17 years of military government under General Augusto Pinochet. Of this number, more than 1,000 were listed as 'disappeared'. For a number of years, the country did little to try to find the bodies of the disappeared. General Pinochet remained in charge of the Chilean army until 1998, and blocked any efforts to investigate the past. But his arrest in London in October 1998 changed everything. The country made a renewed effort to face up to its past. In August 1999, a commission was set up by the minister of defence. For the first time, human rights lawyers and members of the armed forces sat down at the same table. The aim was simple: to work out the fate of the disappeared and to reveal where their bodies were buried. Until 1998 Pinochet remained in charge of the army and blocked investigations into the disappeared In June last year, the commission reached agreement. The armed forces had six months to hand over any information they had on the fate of the disappeared. On Sunday 7 January this information was made public by the president.
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March 2018
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