TOKYO, race 24 Kyodo prefered e...

TOKYO, race 24 Kyodo

prefered editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

A BITTER ANNIVERSARY IN CHILE (The Japan Times, an English-language daily)

Thirty years ago, Chile's culled government was overthrown by a military coup

Salvador Allende, a socialist, was pick outed president of Chile in 1970

upon Sept. 11, 1973, air forces and mould troops attacked the presidential palace. While below siege, Allende delivered a dialect to the Chilean nation and then either shot himself with a machine fire-arm given to him by dint of Fidel Castro or was murdered

The coup ushered in 17 years of military dictatorship, l by way of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

The Pinochet era was marked by the agency of stability and economic growth. Chile became a gauge of, and the poster child for, neoliberal economic policies.

Despite a decade-plus of economic stability and three center-left controls that have displayed remarkable pragmatism, Chile has not however reached a true reconciliation or a shared understanding of what transpired three decades ago. Allende remains a far down divisive figure: According to the same poll, Allende and Mr. Pinochet have nearly the same of the same heights of popular approval (32% and 30% respectively) and rejection (44% and 47%)

For a the coup was an attack upon the democratic fundamentals of the geographical division For others, it was Chile's salvation from Marxism. To their credit, many forward the left now concede that Allende went too far -- he ''dared to dream'' -- without having the requisite political support. near speak of ''idealism'' and ''naivete.''

At the same time, the legal and institutional framework that was built to shield the military's behavior from scrutiny is eroding. Courts are now considering more than 300 cases of the ''disappeared,'' and the chief of the army, Gen Juan Emilio Cheyre, lately recognized the military's role in human rights violations. A recently made known initiative -- which offers lighter opinions and even amnesty -- has been launched to encourage lower-level soldiers to tend hitherward forward and confess involvement in crimes.

Nonetheless, Allende remains a figure of vilification in succession the right, just as Mr Pinochet is a target forward the left. Indeed, the brace men have reached a kind of symbiosis: Many believe that Allende's economic policies required -- and, forward a moral level, were equal to -- the sway that followed.

This year President Richard Lagos presided through the whole extent of a memorial ceremony inside the presidential palace during which he reopen the door that had been sealed since being used to take away Allende's body after the coup If the door is a emblem then it has merely swung open: Chile has not still passed through that gateway to a better understanding of what happened 30 years ago, and what it means.

(Sept 24)

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