(7 Jun 2012) Families of Chilean dissidents, who disappeared during the brutal 1973-1990 Pinochet regime on Thursday called for a documentary about Pinochet due to be shown in a Santiago theatre to be banned.
Right-wing sympathisers of General Augusto Pinochet will honour the former dictator on Sunday with the showing of the documentary about his dictatorship years.
Relatives of those missing and representatives of human rights groups CODEPU ('Corporation for the Promotion and Defence of People's Rights') and 'Relatives of the Disappeared' met at a memorial site and Pinochet-era detention and torture centre on Thursday.
Wearing black-and-white photos of their relatives around their neck, they asked President Sebastian Pinera to ban the documentary.
"We want to disavow the act of honouring dictator Pinochet that is being organised and prepared. Because we feel this act effectively infringes on our rights and our memories," said Alejandra Arriaza, Executive Secretary of the human rights group CODEPU.
"In Chile, state sponsored terrorism existed," he added.
"Forced disappearances existed. Torture existed. Executions. And the systematic violation of hundreds of Chileans for over seventeen years. We cannot allow this. We can't allow a tribute to this. That violence is praised and that a tribute is paid to the dictator and his legacy."
But Pinera's government says organisers have a legitimate right to express themselves.
"Our families didn't die and our families did not disappeared, so that today Mr. Chadwick (referring to Chilean government Secretary General Andres Chadwick ) hands over permission to the violators of human rights to carry out this activity," President of the organisation 'Relatives of the Disappeared Mireya Garcia said on Thursday.
Former commander of Chile's National Intelligence Agency, Alvaro Corbalan, who served in the Pinochet regime contributed ideas to the documentary.
Corbalan is serving life in prison for human rights violations and crimes against humanity.
Chile's government estimates that 3,095 people were killed by the Pinochet regime. About 1,200 of these are considered disappeared.
Pinochet died in December 2006.
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