November 30, 1998, Monday LONDON EDITION 2
UK rebuffs Chile offer to try Pinochet: Legal experts in Santiago dubious over home justice
Santiago
The government yesterday rebuffed attempts by Chile to secure General Augusto Pinochet's release with its suggestion that the former dictator could be prosecuted in his own country for human rights abuses.
The Chilean campaign was also undermined by legal experts in Santiago who said they were sceptical about the chances of the general being tried in Chile.
In what may be seen as a snub to the diplomatic over tures of the Chilean foreign minister, Jose Miguel Insulza, the UK home office said the question of whether Gen Pinochet was tried in Chile was irrelevant to the quasi-judicial decision on extradition being made by Jack Straw, home secretary.
It was not a factor he could take into account unless Chile joined Switzerland and Spain in making a formal request for Gen Pinochet's extradition, a home office official said. It was "wishful thinking" on the part of some ministers to believe the impasse could be broken by the latest Chilean initiative.
Gen Pinochet, who was arrested in London six weeks ago, faces extradition to Spain to answer charges of torture and genocide of Spanish citizens during his 16-year dictatorship. Mr Straw has until December 11 to decide whether to proceed with the extradition, which was cleared by the House of Lords last week in a ruling that denied Gen Pinochet sovereign immunity as a former head of state.
"The [Chilean] government can promise what it likes," said Hector Salazar, a human rights lawyer in Santiago. "But once Pinochet is back here there is a tacit pact between the government and the military that means he will not be prosecuted."
Jose Zalaquett, a lawyer and member of the Rettig commission which wrote an official report of human rights abuses under the Pinochet regime, said the chances of bringing the former dictator to trial were "slim, next to nil. But before they were zero".
Mr Insulza is expected to meet Doug Henderson, armed forces minister, today on the final day of his UK tour before he travels to Spain to lobby the authorities there on the Pinochet case.
Mr Insulza insisted at the weekend that although diplomatic relations with the UK might become "strained", there was no danger of them breaking down. However, he warned that the future of economic relations between the two was out of his government's hands.
"My hope would be thatthey will not suffer," he said. "But I cannot tell people who to do business with."
He said that today's meeting with Mr Henderson was a formality, and would not involve talks about specific contracts.
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