>SUNDAY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
>November 29, 1998, Sunday
>Labour in secret deal to send Pinochet home
[snip]
>THE Government was close to accepting last night a face-saving compromise
>in the extradition crisis over Gen Augusto Pinochet that would allow him to
>leave Britain and stand trial in Chile.
>
>The development follows pleas from the Chilean government for the former
>dictator to be sent home on legal, humanitarian and political grounds. In
>talks with senior members of the Government, Jose Insulza, the Chilean
>foreign minister, said that there was a "genuine prospect and desire" for
>the general to be brought to justice in his home country.
[snip]
>But in contrast to his remarks last month that it would be "gut- wrenching"
>if the former dictator was allowed to escape prosecution through diplomatic
>immunity, Mr Mandelson said he understood that the Chilean people would be
>"offended" if the general was allowed to be tried in Spain. "Whatever they
>feel about Pinochet, they want to deal with him in their own way."
Just who the fuck might "they" be in this sentence? In a country as divided as Chile, to speak of "them" in this way is ideology of the worst order. I asked my Chilean correpondent about the prosepects of Pinochet standing trial -- of justice being done -- in Chile. He wrote back with the following:
If General Pinochet is brought back to Chile he will never stand trial. At the very most, if there is a negotiation between the British and Chilean governments, he might be summoned to appear in court to answer a few questions, but he will never be found guilty of anything. There are at leat six reasons for this:
1) There is no independent judicial system in this country. The legal system was an important instrument used by the dictatorship to repress their opponents. Very little has changed in the past ten years. Military courts are more important than civilian ones, military justice prevails over civilian justice. Whenever there is army personnel involved in any crime at all, the case is taken from the hands of the civilian legal system and brought into the hands of the military system. Needless to say that the case is then invariably dismissed.
2) The amnesty Law of 1978 (self-decreed by the military) covers all the crimes committed between 1973 and 1978, except the assassination in Washington of former Allende minister Orlando Letelier. This means that even if Pinochet is found guilty of any of the charges held against him, he will not go to prison, because the amnesty law will be applied in his case too.
3) Pinochet could be tried for crimes committed after 1978, of course, but neither the Right nor the military will ever allow him to stand trial. He is their symbol, their heroe, their Liberator. Also, their guarantee of power, for there is absolutely no doubt that the military are still in power today due to Pinochet's presence in the political area. Even though he stepped down as commander in chief in March of this year, he was designated by the army as "honorary commander in chief for life". There is no such rank within the army hierarchy, of course, it was just a way of letting the political world know that the army will always be behind Pinochet.
4) Why would he be tried today if he hasn't been tried for 25 years? After all we have always known that Pinochet was the real head of DINA (Secret Police). The so called democratic opposition (socialists included) negotiated with him 10 years ago accepting all of the Armed Forces conditions. One of them was that Pinochet was to become a life senator, which he did, and that he would never have to answer charges of violations of human rights, which he hasn't. His detention has not changed this, for the simply reason that the government does not have the power or the political will to prosecute the dictator.
5) In order for Pinochet to be prosecuted in Chile, a political agreement is necessary. The Right, the Armed Forces, the government and the main political parties would have to agree on certain basic premises in order to put an end to the Human Rights problem. The Left, Human Rights organisations and relatives of the dictatorship's victims would settle for no less than total truth and justice. This is unacceptable to the government, the military, the Right and to the main political parties. So we are back to square one again.
6) The Human Rights "problem" does not end with Pinochet. He ordered the killings, but many others executed the orders. They too must be brought to justice. This clearly is not going to happen. So even if Pinochet is tried in Chile and convicted on Human Rights abuses (which he won't, of course), hundreds of army, navy, air force and police officers responsible for crimes against mankind would still be at large. In fact, just a couple of days ago, about three hundred high ranking officers made it known that they are all responsible for what happened during 17 years of military rule, not only Pinochet. That they are all prepared to come forward and appear before a court of law. A superficial analysis of their action would seem to suggest that they are - at long last - prepared to admit thay they were wrong, that they committed crimes against our people,etc. However, a closer analysis suggests something completely different: What they are in fact saying is that Pinochet is not alone, if Pinochet is going to be tried in Chile then they would have to try them too. In other words, do not mess with us because we will always stand by Pinochet and we will never repent for what we did.
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Tom Kruse Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia Tel/Fax: (591-4) 248242 Email: tkruse at albatros.cnb.net