Academics Discuss Repression in Chile

Three Chilean academics said yesterday they thought talks held earlier this week with President Bok and Dean Rosovsky on current academic repression in Chile were productive.

Enrique Kirberg, Giorgio Solimano and Claudio Grossman presented Bok and Rosovsky with two requests Monday: that the University use all resources available to help find 2500 persons who have "disappeared" since the military coup and that Bok read the study they plan to make on the current Chilean situation, the Chilean academics said.

Kirberg also thanked President Bok for signing a letter along with other university presidents that led to his release from a Chilean prison in October 1975.

Solidarity and Support

In an informal discussion with students at Larsen Hall yesterday, the academics called for the solidarity and support of the Harvard community in pursuing freedoms currently denied by the Chilean military junta.

While President Bok was "most encouraging and supportive," he has requested written requests to aid a more "systematic approach" for working and evaluating current and future action, Solimano said.

"We want you to work together and become a part of our efforts. Only when it is a joint venture--of students and administrators--will we be able to be effective in implementing concrete activities," Solimano said.

Reforms implemented during the Popular Unity government, which democraticized university policy and increased working class enrollment, have been abolished, Kirberg said.

"Universities are suffering. Many academics have left universities because they cannot work in an ambience of terror, fear and no academic freedom," Solimano said.

Grossman said human rights is an international problem. "The way to solve the Chilean problem is the same way you must approach your internal problems of the poor and minorities," he added.

Representatives from the Puerto Rican student organizations Mayo-Mecha and La Organization were present at the discussion. "I know students around here are concerned," Carlos Ortega, a graduate student at the School of Education and a member of Mayo-Mecha, said yesterday. "It's just a matter of publicizing exactly how we can help."