SANTIAGO, Chile — A Chilean judge today indicted former dictator Augusto Pinochet on a charge of kidnapping, ordering him to face trial in the disappearances of 19 prisoners, said lawyers from both sides.
The charges stem from disappearances that occurred in the first months of Pinochet's 17-year rule, which began in 1973 and ended in 1990.
Last week, Gen. Pinochet made a hesitant admission of responsibility for atrocities the military committed during his years in power, saying in a taped birthday message that he accepts "all the facts."
"As a former president of the republic, I accept all the facts that they say the army and the armed forces did," the 85-year-old Pinochet said, speaking hesitatingly.
But he also added that some of the accusations against his government are just propaganda.
Pinochet made similar statements last year in a "Letter to Chileans," a lengthy document he sent home from London while he was under house arrest there.
According to a report by the civilian government that succeeded Pinochet, 3,197 people disappeared or were killed while he was in power.
He faces 177 criminal complaints stemming from the human-rights violations during his rule, and he was kept under house arrest in London from October 1998 until he was freed in March because of his declining health.