Pinochet agrees to tests

Pinochet (left) failed to appear in court on Sunday

Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has agreed to undergo medical tests and questioning ordered by an investigating judge.

General Pinochet was due to have seen Judge Juan Guzman on Tuesday, but the head of his defence team, General Guillermo Garin, said the judge had now rescheduled the meeting for next Monday.

The general failed to appear for a scheduled medical test on Sunday to determine whether he is fit to stand trial for alleged human rights violations.

But Mr Garin said the former dictator had agreed to the tests and questioning, following the extension of the deadline.

Judge Juan Guzman: Rescheduled tests

Psychological and neurological tests are now scheduled for Wednesday to Saturday and the investigative testimony for Monday.

General Garin said: "The judge decided to change [his requirements] and set a substantially more reasonable period of four days to conduct these analyses on a person aged 85 who is quite ill."

Judge Guzman is investigating more than 200 lawsuits against General Pinochet concerning human rights violations while he was in office.

No guarantee

Until now there had been talk of the judge ordering the general's arrest for contempt of court.

But to many in Chile, the decision to reschedule the tests and the questioning is no guarantee that either procedure will actually go ahead.

Under Chilean law, if medical tests were to uncover any signs of dementia or insanity, General Pinochet would not have to go on trial.

His lawyers have long maintained that General Pinochet - who suffers from diabetes, a series of cardiovascular diseases and alleged memory loss - is not fit to stand trial on human rights abuse charges.

Grim findings

On Sunday, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos presented the results of an inquiry into the whereabouts of more than 1,000 people killed during 17 years of military rule and whose bodies have yet to be found.

Thousands disappeared during Pinochet's rule

The bodies of 151 people, he said, had been thrown into the sea, lakes or rivers and would never be recovered.

Another 20 bodies are believed to lie in a mass grave somewhere in Santiago.

President Lagos called the information raw and painful. He admitted that it was not enough, and the fate of hundreds of Chile's disappeared remains unknown.

He was also careful to make no mention of General Pinochet - in keeping with his belief that the former military leader's fate is a matter for the courts.

The inquiry's findings came as a disappointment to many Chileans who lost relatives and friends during the Pinochet era.

Human rights activists have criticised the Chilean armed forces for failing to provide more information on the fate of those missing since military rule.

More than 3,000 people are believed to have died during General Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship. Of those, 1,198 were political prisoners who went missing.