The draftees fear that if they reveal where the bodies are buried, they will face prosecution by the courts or retaliation by the superiors who ordered them decades ago to torture and kill political prisoners.

The information they once promised to carry to their graves has become a heavy psychological burden and a bargaining chip. By offering confessions, the former draftees hope to improve their chances of securing benefits from pensions to psychological treatment.

"We were executors and witnesses of many brutalities, and now we're willing to talk about them for our own personal redemption," said former soldier Fernando Mellado, who was organizing a gathering yesterday of draftees outside Chile's presidential palace.

"So if there is any opportunity in which we can testify, maybe anonymously, then we'd be happy to oblige."

Mellado leads the Santiago chapter of the Former Soldiers of 1973 and has been working with similar groups across Chile to figure out whether and how to turn over the information. He is calling on draftees to tell what they know.

Of the 8,000 people drafted as teenagers from Santiago alone in the tumultuous year when Pinochet overthrew Salvador Allende's government and cemented his hold on power, Mellado believes "between 20 [percent] and 30 percent are willing to talk."

Chilean security forces killed 3,186 people during the dictatorship, including 1,197 who were made to disappear, according to an official count.

In nearly two decades of democracy since then, less than 8 percent of the disappeared have been found, said Viviana Diaz of the Assembly of Family Members of the Disappeared Detainees. Hundreds of recovered remains, some just bone fragments, have yet to be identified. Only those who buried the bodies know where other common graves lie.

Diaz, for one, hopes the former draftees start talking, even if they do so outside the courts. "People have come to us, and all we tell them is, 'It doesn't matter that you don't reveal your identity, just tell us the location, details.' "

Chilean law allows for a "just-following-orders" defense for former soldiers who submit to the mercy of the courts, naming names and providing information that could help resolve some of the thousands of crimes committed under Pinochet's 1973-90 rule.

The defense "theoretically applies and exists" in Chile, and judges can even have people testify in secret, said attorney Hiram Villagra, who represents families of the dead and disappeared.

Mellado said the former draftees also are victims - forced into service as minors and made to do unspeakable things or be killed themselves. He said many had told him of horrifying crimes they have wanted to get off their chests.

Villagra agrees the time is overdue for the soldiers to seek redemption, and has sent a message of support for Mellado's efforts to gather their testimony. "Clearly, there is no desire from our part for these soldiers to carry the burden of guilt of the officers," Villagra said, "who were the ones who made the decisions,"

An AP review found 769 current and former security officers were prosecuted for murders and other rights violations. Almost all deny committing crimes. Only 276 have been sentenced.