Survivors celebrate the life and music of Jara

Chile/Ireland: For Enrique Diaz, September 11th has resonances dating long before the World Trade Centre attack. A former trade union official in 1973 and employee of the newly elected Chilean socialist government, Diaz was working in his home city of Santiago on that date 30 years ago today when General Augusto Pinochet's troops marched in.

"It's a day that's not good to remember," says the father of three, who for more than half his life has been living in exile in Ireland. "Suddenly, everyone was in fear. All you could see was the very sophisticated armed forces and police on the streets, and they wanted to arrest us."

Diaz, then aged just 27, went into hiding. "Newspapers and radio were calling for us to give ourselves up, and some of my colleagues made the mistake of doing so because they thought it was safe. They all lost their lives."

Father Brendan Forde, an Irish Franciscan priest who moved to Chile 18 months before the coup, also remembers the day vividly. "I heard the planes flying overhead and then the bombing starting on the presidential palace. People who went to work early were rushing home and that's when the searching of houses, and the disappearing, began." Fr Forde, who was deported from Chile in 1983 for campaigning against injustices under the Pinochet regime, says the coup transformed the country overnight. "There was always a great buzz to the place. But from September 11th all that stopped. Nobody trusted anybody."

Among those arrested 30 years ago today was Victor Jara, a much-loved campaigning musician who just weeks earlier had performed at a rally supporting President Salvador Allende. Over four days, Jara was tortured, beaten and electrocuted. His hands and wrists were also broken before he was finally machine-gunned to death at the age of 38.

"I met him once," says Diaz of the musician, who is being honoured tonight at the National Concert Hall in Dublin with a celebration of his music from performers such as Cormac Breathnach and Kila. "He was a man always worried about the needs of the people, and especially the children. People will never forget him in Chile."

Diaz, who will be attending tonight's event, hosted by the Latin American Solidarity Campaign, considers himself "very lucky" to have got out of the country with his wife and infant daughter.

Now living in Co Clare, he constantly thinks about lost friends and relations, including a brother-in-law who disappeared after the coup.

"There are husbands, fathers, brothers and sisters still wondering what happened to their relatives," he says.

An Unfinished Song, commemorating the life of Victor Jara, takes place at the National Concert Hall tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets priced €15 and €25. Bookings: 01-417 0000