Pinochet Freed For "Humanitarian" Reasons

by Gustavo Gonzalez

AFDD president Viviana Diaz announced that her group would immediately begin work to strip Pinochet of his immunity as a life senator, in order to see him stand trial in Chile, where he faces 59 lawsuits on charges of crimes against humanity.

Human rights group urged activists to dress in black and maintain a vigil outside the La Moneda presidential palace to protest the former dictator's removal from the reach of international justice and the government of Eduardo Frei's efforts to bring him home.

The retired general's followers, gathered at the Augusto Pinochet Foundation, reacted to Straw's decision with shouts and tears of joy. They immediately began to prepare a reception for the 84-year-old former army chief, who was to be admitted to the Santiago Military Hospital on his arrival.

The retired general took off from RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire at 1315 GMT in a Chilean Air Force Boeing 737.

He was arrested in London on October 16, 1998 -- after undergoing back surgery -- on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon.

But Straw confirmed his decision to release the elderly general on humanitarian grounds, given the decline in his state of health.

Straw's decision, awaited by Pinochet's enemies and followers alike, was announced by enormous front-page headlines in Chile, where newspapers delayed printing to await the announcement by the British official, at 5:00 local time.

Pinochet's return is taking place in the last days of the administration of Christian Democratic President Frei, who hands over the reins of power March 11 to Ricardo Lagos, a member of the Socialist Party who will thus assume the leadership of the center-left Coalition for Democracy which has governed this Southern Cone country since 1990.

On Jan. 11, Straw said he was "minded" to deny the retired general's extradition to Spain based on a report by an independent team of doctors that found "extensive brain damage" and physical ailments that made him unfit to stand trial.

On March 2, he ratified his decision despite reservations filed by Belgium, Switzerland and France expressing doubts with respect to the medical exams and calling for new ones, which was rejected by Straw. Garzon made a similar request, but without the support of the center-right Spanish government of Jose Maria Aznar.

The AFDD said Pinochet's return to Chile was the result of a political decision brought about by the pressure applied on Britain and Spain by the Frei administration, after Pinochet had "failed" each legal test in Britain, and while four other European states demanded his extradition.

But "we are not disappointed," said Diaz. "Straw's final decision was predictable. Despite everything, these 17 months of detention for Pinochet have been a triumph for international justice. We will continue fighting to bring the dictator before Chilean courts. There can be no impunity for human rights violations."

Judge Juan Guzman, who is handling the 59 suits against Pinochet, said that it was up to the courts to determine whether the ex-dictator should be submitted to medical exams prior to any request for the suspension or lifting of his parliamentary immunity, which would allow him to stand trial.

Lagos stated March 1 in Montevideo, where he was attending the swearing-in ceremony of Uruguay's new President Jorge Batlle, that humanitarian reasons as used in Britain did not exist in Chile.

He explained that the only reason for which people could be declared unfit for trial in Chile was when their mental health was involved, and added that he would publicly denounce any pressure exercised on the courts in Chile in connection with the Pinochet case.

Frei and his last two foreign ministers, Jose Miguel Insulza and Juan Gabriel Valdes, have insisted throughout the entire affair that the conditions for Pinochet to be brought to justice existed in Chile, while dismissing arguments that the former dictator enjoyed impunity here.

Former navy chief Jorge Martinez Busch, a designated senator representing that branch of the armed forces, said he was pleased with Pinochet's release, but added that Straw's decision did not "wipe the slate clean of (Europe's) slight" against Chilean sovereignty.

Martinez Busch maintained that Pinochet's lengthy house arrest was "a state kidnapping" committed on the initiative of Judge Garzon, "who believes he has the right to judge everyone."

This final chapter of the former dictator's forced stay in Britain was followed closely by thousands of Chileans who stayed up all night to watch the two TV stations, which broadcast a blow by blow account of the case live from London.

Chilean TV cameras covered developments at the British Home Office in downtown London, as well as in Virginia Waters, the upscale London suburb where Pinochet has been living since early 1999.

As soon as Straw made his announcement, Mayor Cristian Labbe of the Santiago suburb of Providencia -- a retired colonel and former deputy minister of the dictatorship -- ordered that Chilean flags and enormous welcome banners be strung up around the Military Hospital.