Pinochet leaves behind letter defending actions

SANTIAGO, Dec 24 (Reuters) In a letter written before his death and published today, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet defended his 1973 coup and the methods used to impose order during his 17-year rule.

Pinochet, who died on December 10 at age 91, said he launched the coup on September 11, 1973, to prevent Chile from sliding into civil war between opponents and supporters of socialist President Salvador Allende, who was toppled that day.

The late general defended his dictatorship, during which some 3,000 people died in political violence -- the vast majority killed by Pinochet's police and secret agents -- and some 28,000 people were tortured.

''The use of different methods of military control, like temporary detentions, official exile and execution by court martial were necessary,'' Pinochet said in his letter, released by his family and published in several Chilean newspapers.

He said in many cases, it would never be established how or why the victims of the violence died.

''Serious conflicts are like that and always will be: They give rise to abuses and exaggerations,'' the former general wrote in the letter.

''... with all sincerity I can say that I am proud of the enormous action which I had to undertake to stop Marxist-Leninism assuming total power... '' Pinochet said.

''Nevertheless, if I were repeating the experience, I would want more wisdom.'' Pinochet said that during the dictatorship, he acted ''with rigor, but with much more flexibility than has been recognized.'' Decades after he seized power and 17 years after he relinquished it, Pinochet's legacy is still hotly debated.

The general's supporters say he saved their South American nation from Communism, while his opponents say he was a mass murderer who should have been tried for human rights abuses.

Some 60,000 people, most of them ardent supporters of the general, filed past his body this month as it lay in state in the Chilean capital Santiago before his funeral on December 12.

Elsewhere in the city, thousands of Pinochet opponents celebrated his death, cracking open bottles of champagne and dancing in the streets.

REUTERS MQA RN0152