"Happy Memorial Day, Mr. Kissinger"

[Peter K.]

[I doubt the police officials described it as "iron rule." Victor's justice,
Yoshie?]

http://wire.ap.org/APnews/?SITE=DEWIL&FRONTID=HOME

MAY 28, 13:47 EST
Kissinger Summoned in Pinochet Case

By PIERRE-ANTOINE SOUCHARD
Associated Press Writer

PARIS (AP) — Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has been asked to
appear as a witness in the investigation into French citizens who
disappeared under the iron rule of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet,
police officials told The Associated Press on Monday.

A summons to appear as a witness was delivered to a hotel in Paris where
Kissinger is currently staying, the officials said. Kissinger, who served as
secretary of state under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, is in the
French capital on a private visit. He is under no legal obligation to answer
the summons.

The summons was issued at the request of William Bourdon, a lawyer for
families of French citizens who disappeared during Pinochet's 1973-1990
dictatorship.

Bourdon said he believes Kissinger's testimony is ``essential'' to the case
because of numerous exchanges between the secret service agencies of the
United States and Chile after the 1973 coup that brought Pinochet to power.

Kissinger could not immediately be reached for comment.

Judge Roger Le Loire has questioned dozens of witnesses in the French
investigation of the former Chilean dictator. The judge is investigating
allegations that five French citizens, who disappeared in Chile during
Pinochet's military dictatorship, were kidnapped and tortured.

Le Loire is also investigating the disappearance of a small number of French
nationals in Argentina during the military regimes in that country.

Pinochet was detained in Britain in October 1998 on a warrant issued by a
Spanish judge, who wanted to try him on human rights charges. But he was
released by British authorities on health grounds, and returned to Chile.

A Chilean judge has since indicted Pinochet on homicide and kidnapping
charges, holding him responsible for the atrocities committed by the
"Caravan of Death,'' a military group that executed 75 political prisoners
shortly after the coup in which Pinochet ousted Marxist President Salvador
Allende.
[end]