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
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.
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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