The World - News from March 10, 1988

Chile has agreed to investigate a bizarre West German religious colony, 250 miles south of Santiago, where former members say children have been tortured and sexually abused, the West German Foreign Ministry said. In a letter to the Bonn government, Chile’s ambassador, Ricardo Riesco Jaramillo, also said his government will consider “concrete measures” against Colonia Dignidad if warranted, the ministry said. Four former colony members testified in Bonn last month that the colony’s estimated 300 members lived under a “regime of terror” organized by camp leader Paul Schaefer, a former Baptist preacher and army nurse. A colony representative denied the allegations.