European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 28, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes monday july a 1986 columns Mary Mcgrory atrocities Ore the Norm under chilean dictator at an emotional press conference called to recount an unspeakable event he chilean novelist Ariel Dorfman observed that the level of savagery under chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has risen to the Point where the atrocious has become nor Mal. Pinochet s thugs May have erred when they hit upon Rodrigo Rojas a 19-year-old resident or Washington and a recent graduate of Woodrow Wilson High school to show people the tale that awaits those who displease the government. Rodrigo Rojas went Back Home to Chile in  wanted to touch his Root he wanted to find himself. According to his teachers he was Brilliant at computer science he also wanted to be a free Lance photographer. He died in a Santiago Hospital of Burns suffered according to eyewitnesses when soldiers with painted faces poured gasoline Over his body and set it afire. Dorfman talked to Young Rojas five Days before it happened. Rodrigo was Happy to be Back in the coun try he left when he was 8 years old. He was a Sercl Bright very mixed up kid said Dorfman. He was confused about his identity confused about his relationship with his Mother who had been tortured by the chilean government. He had two fathers one who abandoned him one who was killed. He needed to find a meaning in his  Rodrigo s Mother Veronica was with him at the Post Central a Large indifferently equipped Public Hospital in Santiago. She tried hard with the help of . Ambassador Harry Barnes to have him transferred to the Hospital de Trab Jador which has a better Burn unit but she was told that her son asunder arrest and could not be moved. An 18-year-old Santiago woman named Carmens Quintana who was with him on the Avenida Gener Marquina and who was also torched was at tended by a . Burn specialist named or. John Constable of Massachusetts general Hospital at the Behest of Isabel letelier widow of Orlando a Telier the exile who in 1977 was bombed in his car at Washington Circle by Pinochet s assassins the doctor flew to Santiago but arrived too late to help Young Rojas. Veronica de negr1 was with her son when he died. He was unable to talk because his oesophagus was burned As was 60 percent of Hii body. She told friends she stroked the sold of his feet the Only place where James Reston there was no charred flesh. She thinks he knew she was there. Amnesty International has put out the following tentative version of the event Rojas camera in hand accompanied a group of some 60 University students who were going to a shanty town on the Edge of Santiago. Students regularly visit the shacks because they Are subject to particularly brutal military raids violent sweeps intended to terrify the inhabitants and deter would be organizers. The soldiers fell on the students Sticks flailing then singled out Rodrigo and Carmen dragged them to a nearby Street and set about beating them in Earnest. When they Lay on the ground one Soldier brought out a can of gasoline poured the contents on the two Young people and set them on fire. Another Soldier presently came from their vehicle with blankets. He threw them Over the blazing bodies which were then hurled into a car and driven away. Two hours later local policemen in Quilic Ura a Little town North of Santiago found the two bodies in a ditch. He found identification on Carmen and notified the mayor who called Carmen s parents. Veronica de Negri had from her own experience no reason to expect much else for her son in Chile she had been living quietly with her second husband with her two boys Rodrigo and Pablo. She had done some work with unions and with a commission for women. In 1975, she disappeared that is taken to the Headquarters of the secret police where she was continuously tar lured and raped. After signing a confession under torture she was released and with the help of the International Rescue committee left the country. She went to Quebec and in 1977 to Washington. Hers was of the immigrant Success Story Type that was so clamorous by celebrated aver Liberty week end. When she arrived she knew no English and took work As a chambermaid in a Motel. She persevered and became a youth Counselor for the City of Rockville md., and a Volunteer helping drug and alcohol addicts. The state department which called for an investigation pointed out that neither victim was an Ameri can citizen. This from an administration that is out raged when Nicaragua closes a newspaper. Rodrigo s brother Pablo age 12, was also at the press conference and much affected. He said he did not understand Why americans do not understand what is going on in  0 tin Puli big i Phat major political storms brewing among allies in the next couple of years by the accidents of the political Calendar most of the allies will be facing elections that could change the course or world events this is Likely to be a period of unusual stress. Ever since the last world War it has been the principal objective of soviet policy to Divide Washington from its allies. Soit Wilt Lake some foresight and what s Here called damage control to keep National politics from making foreign policy More divisive than it ii it present even before the campaigns have got into their silly phase there t More dam age around the Alliance than control. Some . Officials for example have been bashing Mexico Over the drug Trade and then apologizing for gelling their facts wrong. President Reagan waged a Good fight against the protectionist Trade legislation in the House and then forgetting in for political expediency slapped a Tariff on Canadian Wood products without telling prime minister Mulroney in Advance. Result another apology and Canadian retaliation with tariffs on . Computer parts books semiconductor rail cars Wal other . Products. Meanwhile Reagan s bomber Diplo Macy in Libya and his decision to go it alone on the second strategic arms limitation treaty arrangements have kicked up a storm of criticism from Capitol Hill to Europe and Japan add to this his controversies with the Congress Over More military arms for saudi Arabia and his troubles with his own spies As Well As Israel a and you have to wonder what he Means by saying the Alliance has never been stronger. It will have to be to weather the Politi Cal storms ahead. For the issues and personalities of today May be quite different alter the elections. Reagan will not be a candidate in 1988, and nobody in Washington believes that the Republican party even if it retains control of the Senate in next november s congressional elections will be As Strong without him. Prime minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain whose support of Reagan s air raid on Libya did t detract from her unemployment or education problems sin trouble with a labor opposition that ii leading in the polls and wants to get rid of . Nuclear bases in the United King Dom it s not hard to imagine the howls that would go up on the new Senate television broadcasts if the United states is asked to keep its troops on British bases it can not otherwise use without permission. The president s other conservative buddy in Europe Chancellor Kohl of West Germany is finding that his sup port of Reagan May be a ticket to retire ment. And in France president Mitter Rand and prime minister Chirac Are finding that their Experiment in political cohabitation like other forms of cohabitation May end in divorce sooner than expected. So the question is How to Deal with Al these tangles and the suggestion Here is it May not yet be too. Late for Reagan and Gorbachev to save one another from their illusions and prejudices. That everybody should follow the French example take the month of August off and think things Over or maybe just take it off and not think at All. The French were diverted to new York on the fourth of july to launch the statue of Liberty into another Century with a new Torch and to remind us of the meaning of Liberty. My wife and i observed these ceremonies and claim unless later corrected that alone in the multitude we produced two sons of whom one was bom on the fourth of july and the other on  14th, Bastille Day. But around labor Day when the politicians Are turned Loose with their Wiles and ambitions there ought to be someway to keep them from weakening relations with our neighbors and our other  All the nato Alliance has avoided a third world War for two generations and considering the popularity of sex these Days maybe for three whereas Only 20 care separated the first and Sec Ond world , it May not yet be too ate for Reagan and Gorbachev to save one an other from their illusion and prejudices. Having so far failed to do so they ares ill trapped by the arguments of the past Anco probably can t come to terms with the nuclear future. But maybe some folks should gel to Gether and wonder about the coming elections where blaming the foreigner is a popular game in order to keep anyone from causing More damage to the Alli Ance once the shouting s Over. There s no cheat crisis in the Alliance now but there is a feeling that the president and the Congress Ana the allies Are Drifting apart and that they Are in danger of forgetting the common Dan Ger and their common interests. A Wyo Litls