Chile's Rights Museum to honor dirty war victims
6/17/2009, 11:25 a.m. EDT
The Associated Press
(AP) — SANTIAGO, Chile - Chile's leader says she hopes her people will never forget the human rights violations committed under the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
President Michelle Bachelet held a ceremony thanking people who donated material to a new Museum of Memory and Human Rights opening in December.
The exhibits will include images, testimonials and other material documenting the dirty war, including a flag from the presidential palace that was attacked during Pinochet's military coup of 1973 and a diary kept by a convicted torturer.
Bachelet said Tuesday that these objects are "signs of humanity, of solidarity and hope in the darkness," and that the museum "will be a place of peace, friendship and brotherhood." According to an official report, 3,197 people were killed for political reasons during the dictatorship.
Bachelet, herself briefly imprisoned by the dictatorship that ended in 1990, said no one can deny or minimize this tragedy, and that Chileans must reflect on the past so that the sad history is never repeated.
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