Former Chilean dictator Gen Augusto Pinochet has said in an interview with a Polish journalist that he accepted responsibility for human rights abuses after his 1973 military coup.
"I take full responsibility for everything, even for the cases in which I was not to blame," Gen Pinochet told Polish reporter Tomasz Wolek of the newspaper Zycie Warszawy. Referring to cases in which soldiers tortured left-wingers after his coup, Gen Pinochet said: "On our side, although we were fighting for a just cause, not everyone fought like an angel. In extreme cases, some soldiers' nerves betrayed them. I am sorry. That always happens."
The interview was published in Poland last month and was reprinted on Sunday by Chile's leading newspaper El Mercurio. Mr Wolek said he conducted the interview on January 10th but Gen Pinochet asked that publication be delayed. Gen Pinochet, formerly army commander-in-chief, came to power after a bloody coup on September 11th, 1973, in which the then president Salvador Allende, a socialist, died of a bullet wound inside the presidential palace in circumstances which are still unclear.
A 1991 report concluded that more than 3,000 people died or disappeared because of political violence during Gen Pinochet's 19731990 regime in Chile.
Asked at what moment he made the decision to launch a coup, Gen Pinochet replied: "Allende called me after three in the morning and asked me to come to his house. Prepared for the worst, I took my wife and two of our children to my daughter Lucia's house. As for myself, I hid an additional revolver under my uniform."
On arrival at Allende's home, "They put me in an interrogation room," Gen Pinochet said. "All of a sudden Allende walked in, wearing a colourful, floral robe tied with a red sash. His head was wrapped in a Persian scarlet turban. It was a frightful vision."
Gen Pinochet said he went home after Allende quizzed him about his activities over the last few days.
"Upon arriving at home, I understood that these people were truly leaning toward a Cubanization of Chile," Gen Pinochet said. "Perhaps in that moment I made my personal decision."
Gen Pinochet, aged 83, was arrested in London in October 1998, and remains under house arrest outside the capital awaiting a decision on his extradition to Spain to face trial for human rights abuses committed during his rule. The proceedings are due to begin on September 27th.
Gen Pinochet yesterday completed 10 months under house arrest in Britain. His legal team recently delivered a medical report to the British government, signed by his personal doctor and a local physician, warning he may die if his detention is prolonged or he is forced to stand trial.