Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

CHILE
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Chetniks later became a major fighting force opposed to the Nazis during World War II.
Their early successes were neutralized, however, when a split in the force saw half continuing
to fight the Nazi occupation and half moving on to a different area of battle, fighting
Yugoslav communist partisans. During World War II, Chetnik bands, in fighting for
the old royal order, engaged in fierce battles with the Croatian Ustashe and communist
partisans under the command of Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980). In the latter endeavor, they
collaborated openly with the Nazis and the Italian Fascists. The fighting with the Croats
had the added dimension of savage interethnic hostility. By 1946, the last Chetnik units,
under the command of Dragoljub (“Drazˇa”) Mihailovic (1893–1946), were captured, and
the organization was suppressed. When Slobodan Milosevic (1941–2006) assumed office
in Serbia in 1989, Chetnik groups made something of a comeback. Many Serb paramilitary
units during the wars of Yugoslav disintegration (1991–1995) styled themselves after
the fashion of the Chetniks of old, growing long hair and beards, which began as a symbol
of grief over the state of Serbia—first, in being occupied by the Nazis, and then by the
communists. After the reappearance of the Chetniks in the 1990s, verified accounts of
massacre and war crimes identified them as facilitators of ethnic cleansing, particularly in
Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. One of the most notorious of these self-styled new
Chetniks was Zeljko Raznatovic (1952–2000), known as “Arkan,” whose paramilitary
force, the Tigers, was responsible for numerous atrocities. Other Chetnik forces contributed
to genocidal mass murder in Vukovar and Srebrenica (where another Chetnik
unit, the Scorpions, committed a number of well-publicized murders). Within Serbia
today, there have been attempts at rehabilitating the image of the Chetniks as loyal patriots
fighting for the defense of their country, but their reputation for arbitrary violence,
brutality, and murder has done little to foster a positive image outside of Serbia itself.
Chile. On September 11, 1973, the democratically elected socialist government of
President Salvador Allende (1908–1973) was deposed from office in a military coup led
by General Augusto Jose Ramon Pinochet Ugarte (1915–2006). The junta thereby established
was to remain in power until Pinochet restored Chile to democracy in 1990, after
which Patrico Aylwin (b. 1918) took office following national elections. (Pinochet
retained his position under the new government as commander in chief of the armed
forces and senator, which he relinquished when forced to do so only in 2002.) Under
Pinochet’s rule, Chile became a military dictatorship. Immediately after he seized power,
all left-wing political parties and movements were crushed by decree and by force. Freedom
of speech, multiparty democracy, trade unions, and open courts of justice were all
suppressed. Pinochet established an office called the DINA (Dirección Nacional de
Inteligencia), or National Intelligence Directorate, which served as a secret police force.
Tens of thousands believed by Pinochet to be threats to his new order were arrested and
tortured; at least two thousand became Desaparecidos, “those who have disappeared,” their
fate officially unknown, though almost certainly they were murdered. The junta justified
both its existence and the need for a harsh and controlling regime on the perceived danger
posed by communism against Chile. After the restoration of democracy in 1990,
Pinochet kept a careful eye on the government that succeeded him, always with a veiled
threat of himself making a comeback as dictator if the democratic system veered too far
to the left. His influence collapsed in 1998 when he was arrested in London under an
international arrest warrant issued by Spain charging him with the torture of some of
its citizens in Chile and conspiring to commit torture and genocide. After a lengthy