The Editor, Sir:

The following letter was sent to my friends who sent me memory e-cards and notes via the Internet on September 11, last Thursday. Please grant me space to repeat this letter to the wider Jamaica.

"Friends, many of you have been forwarding or placing bulletins to me, on the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. As terrible as that was, there was another 9/11 that was worse in its magnitude in absolute and per capita terms. More lives were lost and 35 years later, the families of many people have not found closure for their loved ones who went missing or by now feared dead.

"So, today I spare a thought for the thousands who died through United States-sponsored terrorism on September 11, 1973 in Chile.

Dead, missing

"The world appears to have forgotten the first 9/11. At this 9/11, the United States, assisted and supported Agusto Pinochet, a fascist, military dictator, to overthrow the constitutionally and democratically elected government of Salvador Allende on the grounds that he was a little communist.

"Thousands of persons were slaughtered in the bloody coup d'etat and throughout his reign of terror, Pinochet was supported by the US and, later, Britain. He slaughtered thousands of people. Many are still officially 'missing' up to now

"So please, my friends, don't send me anything more about 9/11/ 2001, without any mention of 9/11/1973.

"Many of us are like sheep, trying to keep the memory of the second because it took place on US soil. Let's stop doing that and consider the many people who have perished in bloody coup d'etats, political assassinations and economic strangulation by the United States and/or her surrogates.

I am, etc.,

MICHAEL WILLIAMS

michaelwilliamsa@yahoo.com