Chilean couple talk of terror

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33463, 19 February 1974, Page 16

Chilean couple talk of terror

People were being indiscriminately arrested in Chilean streets, a Latin American and his his Chilean wife said in Christchurch. Both are refugees brought to New Zealand by the United Nations and the World Council of Churches. They said that it was not safe to venture into the streets of Santiago, the Chilean capital. The couple, who wished to remain anonymous, said that foreigners in Chile and those suspected to be “enemies of the state” were told on the streets to produce their identification papers and passport into Chile. Once produced, the documents were torn, and the owners arrested as. illegal immigrants and for having subversive intentions.

They said that all foreigners in Chile were ordered to present them-

selves for examination before the “militants’ 1 — officials of the ruling military junta that overthrew Allende’s Government last September. Usually, guilty or not, they became political prisoners. Both said that the junta was building concentration camps throughout Chile to accommodate a rapidly increasing number of political prisoners, who were being kept, meanwhile, in any available space, tied, blindfolded, and eating only one meal a day.

At present the naval training ship Esmeralda is being used as a prison.

They said that ministers of the former Government had been exiled to one of the southernmost islands in Chile — Dawson Island, just south of the coldest city in Chile, and not far north of uninhabitable regions. They were suffering from exposure. The husband said he had spent a week in a prison camp. He was approached in the street by police who took him, with three others including a North American Roman Catholic priest working for the United Nations in its refugee programme, to a camp near the Chilean coast.

He was released only because the United Nations Commission for Refuges put pressure on the junta for their release on the grounds that no charge had been made against them.

“Once you have been arrested, the militants are not interested in releasing you. You will stay there," his wife said.

“The militants know whom they want to arrest. They have closed all the social service facilities at the universities, and you can no longer study political economics, journalism, or psychology. “At the University of Concepcion 7000 students have been thrown out. The militants have appointed directors who know nothing about teaching. They are agents of the junta, she said. Her husband was also forced to discontinue his studies at the University of Chile, when his faculty was closed. He was not allowed to get a job. "The junta knows that these are the faculties that will threaten its existence. “The United Nations Institutes in Chile have also been closed by the junta. There are very few American countries where they will be able to reopen; governments are so unstable. The couple both described themselves as supporters of Allende.

The junta did not have any relief programme for the poor. “They are not like Allende’s government, they do not want to help the poor people, and there are many poor people in Chile. They only want to rule by fear.

“Under Allende, people in the ghettos received food and essential commodities at especially cheap prices. Now they can get nothing — no soap powder, sugar, meat, potatoes, or oil. There are more commodities available, but they are only available because no-one can afford to buy them. Even middle-class people cannot afford them.

The average wage of the Chilean worker was 18,000 escudos a month. Of this, 15,000 escudos was spent monthly on transport, she said. “We cannot afford to buy a pair of shoes, they are so expensive.” This was not the situation under Allende’s government, she said. “Not very many people wanted the junta. Now I don't think' any are happy.”

In the first month after the coup, it was not uncommon to see parts of dismembered bodies on display in the ghettos, a move by the junta to deter opposition to its rule. The couple denied any allegation that the slow passage of refugees from Chile was a fault of the New Zealand Embassy. The Government’s quota of 20 families had not been filled, simply because refugees did not choose this country. “In the United Nations and church camps, you are shown a list of the countries offering asylum, and you choose the one you want. Many refugees did not choose New Zealand because it was so far away, and they did not know what it was like.” More people went to America and Europe because they knew better what was ahead. “We chose New Zealand because we knew we would come out as immigrants, not as refugees. In Europe you remain refugees. We were also told that here the Government was stable. “We will be able to continue our studies and learn a little English.”