Tomorrow, 40 years ago the military coup in Chile It was a terrible experience and I got deeply chocked. Felt guilty for years that I had survived and even today hearing helicopters makes me uneasy. The military attacked my house shortly after the coup and then a month or more later while I was on a mission for the UN-ECLA in the Andean Pact countries they stormed my house early in the morning with an order to arrest me. Fortunately I was then in Peru or otherwise I would have "disappeared" like so many other people. The military accused me of having illegal arms. They destroyed the permit which I had with the gun. As a result, the UN wanted to send me back to Sweden. But as a good bureaucrat I had a copy at my office. I refused to return to Sweden, after all I had a permanent contract with the UN and Santiago was my home. The UN simply had to act and the military were warned that the UN ECLA was considering leaving Chile. And the military became more cautious about maltreating all the students studying at for example ILPES, created by Raúl Prebisch, the famous Argentinian economist. My thoughts go to my friends who were tortured and killed by the military.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 00:07:56 +0000