Clashes between the former president Pinochet's supporters and
their opponents erupted in Chile nationwide following his death on
Sunday.
According to police some 5,000 demonstrators took to the streets
on Sunday afternoon and evening in Santiago and around 1,000 across
the country were also demonstrating.
Some 10 protestors, who were celebrating the Pinochet's death,
were arrested and six policemen injured during a clashes with
demonstrators.
Pinochet's supporters and opponents gathered around the Santiago
Military Hospital where the former president died. On Sunday
afternoon Pinochet's supporters attacked passing vehicles around
the hospital with stones and Chilean police were deployed to keep
order.
Thousands of Chileans danced in the streets of the capital to
celebrate his death and police fired water cannon and used tear gas
to disperse the demonstrators. They threw metal bars and bottles at
the police and lit bonfires on downtown streets.
Small-scale violence erupted when police tried to stop a crowd
of more than 1,000 people marching down the capital's main Alameda
avenue. Police used water cannon and gas to stop the crowd while
the demonstrators threw stones and bottles.
On behalf of the Chilean government, Deputy Interior Minister
Felipe Harboe, urged on Sunday night that citizens keep calm and
explained that strict security measures would be in force in
Santiago at night.
Pinochet, who came to power through a US-supported coup in 1973,
died Sunday at the Military Hospital a week after suffering a heart
attack. He'll be buried with military honors but without a state
funeral or national mourning.
Pinochet stood accused of four crimes. The Caravan of Death
Case, referring to the kidnap and murder of two personal guards of
Salvador Allende, the left-wing president deposed by Pinochet in
the coup of September 11, 1973, two other major human rights abuse
cases and another of allegedly embezzling US$27 million of public
money.?
In 2000 Chile's Supreme Court stripped Pinochet of his
presidential immunity paving the way for a trial. However, two
years later the same court dropped the charges, saying the former
president was too ill to stand trial.
(Xinhua News Agency December 11, 2006)
