December 12, 2006	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 20, 1427

MADRID, Dec 11: The daughter of Salvador Allende, the late Chilean president ousted in a September 1973 coup which saw General Augusto Pinochet assume the presidency, said on Monday the latter's death must not end attempts to secure justice and compensate victims of his dictatorship.

Pinochet died on Sunday of a heart attack aged 91, with a slew of judicial cases still open against a 17-year rule marked by thousands of disappearances and alleged human rights abuses, and Isabel Allende insisted attempts to provide legal recompense for his victims should continue.

“Justice must continue its work” for the sake of “dignity,” Ms Allende said in an address at the Madrid headquarters of Spain's ruling Socialist Party.

Ms Allende said Pinochet's rule had been a “betrayal” of Chile and lamented that he never had to face justice.

Allende, a Chilean lawmaker, lambasted Pinochet's “incapacity to repent, to be moved (to pity for his opponents) and to ask forgiveness.” She commented that whilst his death “marks the end of a personal cycle” at the same time “Chile does not change” as much had in her view still to be done to atone for the alleged Pinochet regime's crimes.

“The trials must continue,” she added in allusion to some 400 legal cases under way in Chile regarding crimes committed under the dictatorship.

Also on Monday, a Spanish government source said that Madrid would not send a representative to Pinochet's funeral, due on Tuesday. Earlier, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon said attempts to win compensation for Pinochet's victims should continue.

Garzon tried to have the general extradited to Spain after demanding his arrest in October 1998 in London, following denunciations by relatives of Spaniards who disappeared during the dictatorship.

“These investigations must continue,” Garzon told Cadena Ser radio, adding “reparations” should still be sought for victims “who were not just those of Pinochet, but also of other military and non-military persons.”—AFP