A member of Chile's parliament has been charged with
the killing of three left-wing militants during the dictatorship of Gen Augusto
Pinochet.
Rosauro Martinez (above) was an army captain at the time of
the incident in 1981.
He led a patrol in southern Chile in search of
members of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), which sought to overthrow the
Pinochet regime.
A gun battle followed in which at least 11 people
died, but the exact details of what happened remain a mystery.
Mr Martinez says he followed army protocol, but some
former conscripts who were with him at the time say he used excessive
brutality.
The 64-year-old member of the conservative National
Renewal party has been a Congressman since the early 1990s, when Gen Pinochet
relinquished power and Chile returned to democracy.
In June, he was stripped of his parliamentary
immunity.
That paved the way for his arrest in city of
Valdivia on Thursday - the 41st anniversary of the coup that launched Gen
Pinochet's 17-year rule.
"Chile needs more truth and more justice so we
never live the horror of dictatorship again," said government spokesman
Alvaro Elizalde.
Some 3,200 people were killed and 38,000 others
tortured during Gen Pinochet's rule, according to the government.
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