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Grand ship, ugly past
By Michael Bradley
SOURCE: SMH.com.au http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/07/1028157962906.html
DATE: August 8, 2002
Warm welcome ... Chile's Esmeralda sails into Sydney Harbour yesterday.
It is one of the world's largest sailing ships, drawing attention whenever it
comes into port. Yet the Esmeralda does not always receive a reception as warm
as the one offered at Garden Island yesterday.
The pride of the Chilean Navy, the Esmeralda might be a magnificent example of
marine architecture, but it has skeletons in its closet. To thousands of
Chileans, the ship is a symbol of the country's brutal past.
In the weeks after General Augusto Pinochet's bloody coup in 1973, the Esmeralda
was used as a floating prison and torture chamber.
For thousands who sympathised with the ousted socialist president, Salvador
Allende, the ship was a place of beatings, sexual assault, electric shock, and
water torture.
The ship has been the object of protest ever since.
The ship's invitation to take part in the 1986 Bicentennial celebration of the
Statue of Liberty caused the Unites States Senate to pass a resolution
condemning its involvement. Senator Edward Kennedy said at the time: "The Statue
of Liberty would weep at the sight of the Esmeralda entering the gateway of
freedom at New York Harbour."
In 1974, protesters succeeded in turning the ship away from San Francisco and in
1976, when the ship travelled to Baltimore as part of the American Bicentennial
celebration, it again attracted strong protest.
In July 2000, protests again accompanied the ship's arrival in Baltimore, while
as recently as August 2001, more than 1000 protesters met the vessel in Quebec,
throwing molotov cocktails and red paint.
Amnesty International is fighting to have the Chilean Navy and Government
confess to the crimes, which have been acknowledged by the Chilean National
Commission on Truth and Reconciliation. The commission confirmed in 1991 that
the ship was used as a torture centre.
Chile's Consul General in Australia, Jorge Canelas, doubts the boat was used for
this purpose.
"There are reports of terrible stories but none of them have been confirmed," he
said. "I don't think it really was a prison. They had enough prisons without
having to use the pride of the navy."
The Australian navy was yesterday unwilling to comment on the ship's
controversial history. However, the Esmeralda's captain, Enrique Larranaga
Martin, said the crew had been made very welcome by both the navy and the
public.
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