Pinochet dies

Walking home from dropping my elder Dragonet at school this morning, I was still struggling with my emotions concerning the news of the death of Augusto Pinochet, which I heard last night. I've blogged about him in the past and I feel I ought to express my feelings at his passing, but it's difficult to reconcile my emotions with what my conscience tells me I should feel as a Christian.

I am trying to accept the fact that Augusto Pinochet is now facing the Judgement that none of us can avoid, and this is the ultimate Judgement by the fairest of all Judges, so I must now leave this in God's hands and try not to anticipate that judgement as I am fighting hard to learn the lesson that I must not judge others' spiritual worth. And yet (because I am still deeply human in this respect)...

I find myself wondering whether the Russians felt cheated when they found Hitler's body.

And I am still spitting with fury at the quoted comments from Margaret Thatcher regarding the former Chilean dictator. I never liked the woman but now I have even more reason to dislike her. I wouldn't even care if he won the bl**dy Falklands war single-handedly on our behalf, that could never balance out the fact that he was responsible for the torture of so many people, among whom my friend, who is the sweetest, most gentle man I have ever met.

OK, so he can't stand trial on this Earth, but let us not ever whitewash his part in history, and let's continue to investigate the crimes he committed, and the part played by others so that we can stand up and say, "this was wrong. This should never have happened. These people suffered injustice. These people were murdered. These people were tortured. These people disappeared. We will not stand by and let this happen again. We will not forget."