Sister Hopes
Brother Still Alive in Chile
SANTIAGO, Chile, Apr. 1, 2006
(AP) Boris Weisfeiler was one of more
than 3,000 people who vanished after being arrested during the
military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. He's the only
American still missing.
Yet his sister said Friday she holds
out hope he is alive, 21 years later.
"I know he was alive
two and a half years after his disappearance because there are some
people who saw him; so if he was alive then, he may still be alive
now," Olga Weisfeiler said at a news conference with U.S. Ambassador
Craig Kelly.
Finding out what happened to Weisfeiler is a
"high priority" for the American government, Kelly said.
A
Russian-born naturalized U.S. citizen, Boris Weisfeiler was 43 when
he was arrested by a military patrol while camping near Parral, 210
miles south of the capital Santiago in 1985. The Pennsylvania State
University mathematics professor has been missing ever
since.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed
concern about the Weisfeiler case earlier this month when she
attended the inauguration of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet _
herself once a political prisoner under Pinochet.
More than
3,000 people disappeared or were killed for political reasons during
Pinochet's 1973-90 rule, according to a report by an independent
commission appointed by the government that succeeded the former
dictator.
Weisfeiler was one of four American victims but
only he remains missing; bodies of other three have been found,
according to the commission.
But the circumstances behind the
disappearance of Weisfeiler, who Chilean authorities and his sister
say was in the country as a tourist, has remained a
mystery.
Olga Weisfeiler, of Newton, Mass., said her brother
"was not interested in politics at all" and was there only to hike
and camp.
Weisfeiler said she would remain in Chile for a
week to meet with the government, court officials and army commander
Gen. Oscar Izurieta to ask for support. She also said she hoped new
information would emerge from an investigation by Chilean
authorities into Colonia Dignidad, a secretive German enclave where
he was reportedly last seen.
Pinochet, now 90, is himself
free on bail after being indicted on human rights and tax evasion
charges. Past attempts to prosecute the former dictator have failed
when his attorneys argued that he was not healthy enough to stand
trial.
___
On the
Net:
http://www.weisfeiler.com/boris/
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