'Pinochet's death will not heal wounds'

SANTIAGO: More than 30 years after he was brutally tortured by Augusto Pinochet's secret police, Pedro Matta says the death of the former dictator will heal neither his nor his country's wounds.   

Pinochet, who ruled Chile for 17 years during which over 3,000 people perished in political violence, died on Sunday at the age of 91, drawing tears from supporters and cheers from victims of his regime and their families.   

"My first reaction to his death was indignation," said Matta, who says he begged to be killed in 1975 while agents of Pinochet's secret police, known as the DINA, tortured him at the infamous Villa Grimaldi prison, used for political prisoners of the dictatorship.   

Matta said Pinochet's death cheated him out of the closure he wanted from a trial of the ex-dictator on charges ranging from torture to murder.   

At the time of his death, several human rights cases were proceeding against Pinochet, and in September the Supreme Court cleared the way for him to face charges of murder, torture and other rights abuses at Villa Grimaldi.   

Matta's case would have been a part of that trial.   

"My Villa Grimaldi case was closed at 2 p.m. yesterday, at the moment Pinochet died," said Matta who, after hearing of the news, spent Sunday evening in the memorial on the grounds where Villa Grimaldi once stood.   

Chile's government has documented close to 30,000 cases of torture during the dictatorship and military officers have been convicted of the crime.   

Pinochet lost his immunity from prosecution -- a privilege of former presidents -- and since 2000 was indicted several times for torture, assassinations and other crimes. He was never convicted, however, because his defence successfully argued his mild dementia made him unfit for trial.   

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and her mother were also held and abused at Villa Grimaldi, in the east of Santiago, before going into exile.   

Tito Tricot, who had his spine broken by Pinochet agents while being tortured, said he too had mixed feelings about the dictator's death.   

"I am happy because the dictator who gave this country its longest night, a night of violence, of torture, of disappearances, is dead," said Tricot, who spent a total of about three years in jail during Pinochet's rule.   

"I'm also ashamed, because Pinochet never spent a day in prison, he was never judged," he said.   

Now, many say Chile will not be able to heal fully until the living memory of the dictatorship follows Pinochet to the grave.   

The former head of Pinochet's secret service is in jail along with two dozen others, and hundreds of other former members of state security forces are under investigation or indictment.   

For Matta, each legal battle helps to ease the pain of the Pinochet dictatorship, but scars won't fade for generations.   

"The image and the shadow of Pinochet will probably extend for many years still, until the children of the victims have also passed on," he said.