Rights Groups Claim Victory Despite Pinochet Release

by Jim Lobe

"While it's a terrible disappointment for Pinochet's thousands of victims that he will not face trial in Spain," said Reed Brody of the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), "the very fact that he was arrested, and his claim of immunity was rejected, has already changed the calculus of dictators around the world."

"The Pinochet case signified the beginning of the end of their impunity," he added.

Other groups, including Amnesty International in London, said Pinochet's fate will now be decided in Chile where some 59 criminal complaints involving kidnapping, murder and torture have been filed against him, but where he also enjoys parliamentary immunity as a senator-for-life.

One organization, the New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (LCHR), said Pinochet's release by British Home Secretary Jack Straw underscored the "urgent need" for a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) to be put in place.

"Current negotiations on the ICC treaty continue to offer the opportunity to create a permanent legal venue for dealing with future Pinochets," said Bruce Broomhall, LCHR's International Justice Coordinator.

Pinochet, who ruled Chile with an iron fist between 1973 and 1990, headed home aboard a Chilean Air Force jet yesterday after spending more than 16 months under house arrest outside London awaiting a final decision on an extradition request by a Spanish judge investigating crimes against humanity committed during his reign.

After several court challenges, Straw ruled that Pinochet was medically unfit to stand trial. He based his decision on a finding by several medical experts that the 84-year-old had suffered "extensive brain damage" as a result of a series of minor strokes probably suffered last Fall.

Before his release, however, Britain's highest court had ruled that former heads of state are not immune from prosecution for crimes against humanity, such as torture, in foreign jurisdictions -- a precedent that victims and human rights groups world-wide can wield as a potent weapon against other abusive rulers.

"The fact that Augusto Pinochet was arrested while travelling abroad -- almost unthinkable just 16 months ago -- has sent a powerful message," according to a statement released by Amnesty. "No one is above international law, even when national laws protect you from prosecution.

"The (British) courts have confirmed that people accused of crimes such as torture can be prosecuted anywhere in the world," it added. "This achievement is not affected by the Home Secretary's decision not to extradite Augusto Pinochet to Spain."

HRW, which called the case a "milestone," noted that the "Pinochet Precedent" had already been used by victims and rights groups, including HRW itself, to pursue former Chadian dictator Hissein Habre.

Last month, a judge in Senegal, where Habre has been living since 1991, when he was ousted from power, indicted him for torture committed against thousands during his nine-year rule.

"(The Habre case) shows that Africa can also play a role in the fight for human rights and can fight on its own soil," Delphine Djiraibe, president of a local rights group which helped bring the case, told the New York Times recently.

"Dictators around the world must now live with the constant fear of being 'Pinocheted,'" said John Cavanagh, the director of the Washington-based think-tank, the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), which has long sought Pinochet's prosecution here for his alleged role in the 1976 murder of two of the Institute's staff.

The Institute and human-rights activists here have urged the administration to re-open the case to determine whether Pinochet should be extradited for his alleged involvement, and the Justice Department last year sent two of its lawyers to Spain to meet with the judge, Baltasar Garzon, who ordered Pinochet's arrest.

The Justice Department's investigation, however, has proceeded at a snail's pace, and yesterday, the attorney for the Letelier-Moffitt families, Sam Buffone, called on the incoming Chilean government of President-elect Ricardo Lagos to cooperate closely with U.S. investigators.

"The Chilean government should allow U.S. officials to take testimony from key witnesses in Chile and should provide FBI investigators with documents pertaining to the case," he said. The Justice Department did not comment on the case yesterday.

Under pressure from the human rights movement here, Pres. Clinton last December ordered the release of all classified U.S. government documents relevant to human rights abuses committed under Pinochet, an order that was later broadened to cover relevant documents before the September 1973 military coup d'etat that brought the dictator to power.

The Justice Department, however, has withheld documents relevant to the Letelier-Moffitt assassinations in light of the ongoing review. At the same time, activists and historians have charged that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and, to a lesser extent, the Pentagon, have withheld documents which would shed light on the U.S. role in support of the coup and of Pinochet's security apparatus.

The State Department yesterday reiterated the ambivalent position it has taken since Pinochet was arrested receiving medical treatment in Britain in October 1998. At that time, Washington was particularly concerned that his arrest and extradition could polarize Chile and even prompt a new military coup.

"We respect the outcome of the British judicial process," a spokesperson told IPS. On the one hand, she said, "Washington has always supported the principle of justice and accountability for human rights violations."

On the other hand, "we have concurrently sought to lend support to countries like Chile that have made a sustained genuine effort to re-establish democratic norms and the rule of law," she said.

The spokesperson added, however, that "when Gen. Pinochet returns to Chile, he will be returning to a different country than the one he left 16 months ago. The Chilean people have demonstrated a willingness and capacity to deal with the difficult issues stemming from the Pinochet era. It is our hope and expectation that the ongoing process within Chile of addressing these outstanding human rights issues will continue."

But most groups doubt that, despite the advances made against impunity in Chile in the prosecutions of the past two years, Pinochet will be tried in his homeland, both because of continuing efforts to ensure his immunity from prosecution and because of the British finding that he was mentally unfit to face a trial.

HRW is especially concerned about a constitutional reform proposed by the government of outgoing President Eduardo Frei that would give permanent immunity to all former heads of state. It is currently being debated by the parliament and could pass as early as the end of this month.

"The law would set a terrible precedent," according to Jose Miguel Vivanco, who heads HRW's Americas division. "not only would it make it harder to bring Pinochet to justice, it would weaken the institution of democracy in Chile."

"The focus in the struggle against impunity for crimes against humanity committed under Augusto Pinochet's rule now shifts back to Chile," said Amnesty International. "It is now up to the Chilean government to decide whether those suspected to be responsible for thousands of cases of torture, murder and 'disappearance' that took place during his time in power will ever face a court of justice."