SANTIAGO, DEC 25: The Chilean army remained tightlipped this weekend ahead of a new year deadline to give human rights groups information about some 1,198 people who disappeared during Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship--in exchange for anonymity for military informants.The Army's public relations Chief Pedro Pablo Bustossaid, in an article published yeterday in daily El Mercurio newspaper, that the institution did not intend to release results of the study until it was formally concluded.
The deadline date for finalising the collection of data on the missing people is January 6.
"The Army, as it has repeated on many occasions, prefers not to give previews of the results until the process has been definitively concluded," Colonel Bustos told the newspaper.
In a separate report yesterday, the La Tercera newspaper, citing sources from the forces, reported that the armed forces had now handed over information on more than 300 of those who disappeared.
The report, citing military sources, said only some 50 more cases may remain to be revealed.
An arrangement reached in mid-2000 with human-rights groups who have repeatedly requested information for the families of the missing, presumed dead, was passed into law by Chile's Congress, granting anonymity for military informants.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
