Bombs Rock Santiago Hours Before Allende’s Reburial : Chile: Ceremony marks the 20th anniversary of the election of the Marxist president killed in a coup.

Bombs rocked the Chilean capital of Santiago today hours before the ceremonial reburial of Salvador Allende, the elected Marxist president who died in a military coup 17 years ago.

Four bombs exploded in the early hours of the morning, damaging monuments, a shopping center and a car showroom.

Police said they believe that the bombs were placed by an ultra-right-wing group, named the September 11 Commandos after the date of the 1973 coup that toppled Allende.

In a shopping center where the largest bomb--eight pounds of TNT--exploded, police found leaflets bearing the group’s name and praising former military ruler Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Pinochet’s reign began Sept. 11, 1973, when the military stepped in, claiming popular support, and strafed the Moneda presidential palace with jets as Allende sat inside.

Allende’s body was found in the smoking ruins, and the military hurriedly buried him in an unmarked grave in the coastal town of Vina del Mar.

Today, on the 20th anniversary of his presidential election victory, Allende’s remains were moved to a new family tomb in Santiago’s main cemetery--the resting place of 12 other Chilean presidents.

At a ceremony in Vina del Mar attended by members of President Patricio Aylwin’s center-left government and leaders of the Communist and Socialist parties who were exiled by Pinochet, Allende’s family called for a new start in Chile.

Isabel Allende, his daughter who was 27 at the time of the coup, said in a graveside speech: “Today we are arriving at the end of a long and painful pilgrimage. We want to leave the past behind. It is a moment of reconciliation in the country.”

About 3,000 people paid homage to Allende outside the cemetery in Vina. Eyewitnesses said 10 people were arrested after scuffles with police, who sprayed crowds trying to march to the center of the town with water and tear gas.

In Santiago, thousands of people, many with red banners, began to line the route of the funeral procession.

Foreign guests attending the Santiago ceremony included French Prime Minister Michel Rocard; Danielle Mitterrand, wife of French President Francois Mitterrand, and Lisbeth Palme, widow of Sweden’s murdered premier Olaf Palme.

To avoid increasing tensions between the civilian government and the army, still led by Pinochet, the family has not asked for military honors usual for a former president.