Allende remains to be exhumed for inquiry

A CHILEAN court has ordered the remains of the country's former president Salvador Allende to be exhumed as part of an inquiry into historic rights abuses.

Investigators are trying to determine whether Allende committed suicide or was killed by soldiers in the 1973 coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power.

Allende's body was found in the presidential palace after the building had been attacked by troops and planes.

Judges ruled the exhumation would take place towards the end of next month.

Thousands were killed, disappeared or tortured under Pinochet's rule, which lasted until 1990, and the Allende case is one of 726 alleged rights abuses that investigators are looking into.

An official post-mortem report found he committed suicide using a rifle given to him by Cuban leader Fidel Castro.