Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 5 september 2018

New UN human rights chief has survived torture herself

By EVA VERGARA from 2014-18.
Associated Press Bachelet is known as a car-
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — ing single mother, a hard
Former Chilean President worker and an astute ne-
Michelle Bachelet was 23 gotiator.
years old when she was tor- In her new post as the U.N.
tured and fled her country's High Commissioner for Hu-
dictatorship into exile. Now, man Rights, she replaces
more than four decades Zeid Ra'ad Al-Hussein, a
later, she will face her past diplomat and member of
fighting such abuses world- Jordan's royal family.
wide as the new U.N. hu- Diplomats from the U.N.'s
man rights chief. 193-member states burst
Bachelet, 66, is often seen into applause in July when
smiling, chatting easily or the General Assembly pres-
tossing unplanned com- ident gave official approv-
ments or jokes into her al to Secretary-General An-
speeches. But behind her tonio Guterres' selection of
good humor lie haunting Bachelet.
memories of the brutal dic- But in Chile, some human
tatorship that tore her fam- rights groups criticize her
ily apart. record, saying that as presi-
Her father, air force Gen. dent she failed to close a
Alberto Bachelet, died in In this July 20, 2017, file photo, Chile's then President Michelle Bachelet looks on during visit to special prison for dictator-
1974 following months of Memory Park which honors victims of the country's dictatorship, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. ship-era criminals that pro-
torture in prison. Gen. Au- Associated Press vided them with comforts
gusto Pinochet's military they wouldn't enjoy in regu-
had convicted him of be- ibly disappeared by Chile's people who were forcibly in the center-left coalition lar confinement.
ing a traitor for opposing military dictatorship. He disappeared during the that dominated Chile's Guterres has said that
the 1973 military coup that returned to Chile, but only dictatorship. government for almost 20 Bachelet is taking office
ousted President Salvador briefly because he feared Her father's death and her years after Pinochet lost "at a time of grave conse-
Allende. he would be captured by boyfriend's disappearance power. quence for human rights."
Bachelet herself was arrest- Pinochet's agents. marked Bachelet's charac- Putting her traumatic past "Hatred and inequality are
ed along with her mother in Back in Europe, Bachelet ter. Despite this, she never behind, she helped the dis- on the rise," he said. "Re-
1975. reminded him of the impor- held grudges - not even credited military regain its spect for international hu-
She was a young member tance of committing to the against the Chilean mili- status in the wake of Pino- manitarian and human
of the Socialist Party, and cause and her father's sac- tary, said Giorgio Agostini, chet's dictatorship. rights law is on the decline.
her time in a secret prison rifice, according to "Bache- a sociologist who has long- One of her emblematic Space for civil society is
was an ordeal that she let. The Unofficial Story," by known Bachelet and has moments came when she shrinking. Press freedoms
prefers not to talk about, Javier Ortega and Andrea written about her life. was named Latin America's are under pressure."
saying only in her autobi- Insunza. Bachelet returned to Chile first woman defense minis- On Monday, Bachelet's
ography that she suffered "My dad died because he in 1979 when she felt she ter during the government third day in her new job, a
"physical hardships." was consistent. I expect could do so safely. She of President Ricardo Lagos. Myanmar court sentenced
Using the family's politi- nothing less from you," the studied medicine, special- She continued to break two journalists from Reuters
cal connections, she went book says Bachelet told her izing in pediatrics, and be- boundaries when she be- news agency to seven
into exile in Australia and then-boyfriend. gan working at an organi- came Chile's first women years in prison on charges
the former East Germany. When he followed her ad- zation that helped children president in 2006. of illegal possession of offi-
There she reunited with her vice, Lopez was captured with mental health prob- After her term, she was cial documents.
then-partner, Jaime Lopez. in Chile. Under torture, he lems whose parents had named the first head of The ruling was met with in-
At age 25, Lopez became gave Pinochet's secret po- been victims of the 1973-90 U.N. Women, the world ternational condemnation
one of the leaders of the lice information on other dictatorship. body's new women's agen- that will add to outrage
Socialist Party that had members of the Socialist Bachelet rose through the cy. She left the post to re- over the military's human
seen many of its members Party, before he became ranks of the Socialist Party turn to Chile and won the rights abuses against Ro-
tortured, killed or forc- one of the about 1,000 and became a key player presidency again, serving hingya Muslims.q