Xinhua - English

SANTIAGO, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chilean President Michelle Bachelet urged the Chilean people on Monday not to forget the suffering and social fragmentation inflicted by Augusto Pinochet's rule and to learn from the past in efforts to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Stressing the importance of national dialogue, Bachelet said it was terrible for a society to run out of something as vital as the possibility to communicate and reach understanding.

"Chile cannot forget because that's the only way we will have a constructive outlook towards our future and guarantee the fundamental rights of every Chilean citizen," the president said during the presentation of an Education Advisory Council report.

Bachelet was referring to the military government under Pinochet, who was charged with torturing and murdering thousands of leftist opposition members during his 17-year rule.

The 91-year-old former leader, who was brought to power by the 1973 coup d'etat, died on Sunday of a decompensation after suffering a heart attack on Dec. 3, without being held accountable for any of his crimes.

"History is gradually built and truths are established... I have a very settled notion about a painful, dramatic and complex era our country went through. I have memory. I believe in truth and I aspire to justice," Bachelet said.

Bachelet's remarks came one day after riots, pitting Pinochet's opponents and supporters, swept through Santiago, which witnessed some 100 arrests and dozens of injures.

According to official information, about 15,000 people took to the streets on Sunday to celebrate Pinochet's death with champagne, while some 3,000 of his followers gathered outside the Military School where his remains were held, bidding farewell to the former leader.

"We have seen divisive gestures we dislike, but I know that as a country and as a society we have the ethical strength to reunite," the president said.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Belisario Velasco, also Bachelet's chief of cabinet, reiterated the government's stance that there would be no state funerals for Pinochet.

"The government does no think (Pinochet) fulfils the requirements for a state funeral," he said, adding that Pinochet "will go down in history as a dictator, as the classic rightist dictator who seriously violated human rights and became rich. This has been the line of rightist dictators in Latin America."

Velasco said Defense Minister Vivianne Blanlot will attend the funeral on Tuesday, but Marco Antonio Pinochet, Pinochet's youngest son, said he does not want anybody from the government in the funeral.

As Pinochet's death touched off mixed emotions in Chile, the Group for Relatives of Detained and Missing People (AFDD) on Monday called for new demonstrations in downtown Santiago to honor the victims under Pinochet's rule.

"We have called for demonstrations on Monday at the memorial for repression victims and in downtown Santiago and on Tuesday at the Palacio de la Moneda," AFDD president Lorena Pizarro told Xinhua.

But not only opposition members have some activities planned. Pinochet's followers also called for a gathering in memory of him.

Profile: Former Chilean president Pinochet

SANTIAGO, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Augusto Pinochet, former Chilean President from 1973 to 1990, died at 91 on Sunday 2:15 p.m. (1715 GMT) from heart complications, a communique of the Santiago Military hospital said on Sunday.

The hospital said Pinochet' condition worsened suddenly and doctors rushed him back to the Intense Care Unit, from which he had been removed only on Thursday while recovering from an acute heart attack he suffered one week ago.

Group photos: Thousands bid farewell to Pinochet

Riots in Chile lead to 100 arrests

SANTIAGO, Dec. 11, (Xinhua) -- One hundred people were arrested and dozens more were injured during the riots from Sunday night to early Monday in Chile after the death of former President Augusto Pinochet.

Chile: Pinochet to be buried without state funeral

SANTIAGO, Dec 10 (Xinhua) -- Former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet who died on Sunday, will be buried with military honors but without a state funeral or national mourning, said government spokesman Ricardo Lagos Weber in a statement.

The statement was released three hours after Pinochet's death. Lagos said that Pinochet's body would be taken to the Military School, and his funeral and mass would be on Tuesday.

Unrest erupts in Chile after Pinochet's death

Demonstrators are seen outside Chile's Military Hospital where Pinochet died in Santiago Dec. 10, 2006. (Xinhua Photo)
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SANTIAGO, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chilean police arrested some demonstrators in an unrest in some Chilean cities, especially the capital, following the death of former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet.

Chilean gov't urges public to keep calm

A demonstrator is detained by police officers outside Chile's Military Hospital where Pinochet died in Santiago Dec. 10, 2006. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)
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SANTIAGO, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chilean Deputy Interior Minister Felipe Harboe urged on Sunday night the public to be calm after the death of former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet.