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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]