International Criminal Court: The Pinochet Case

A YoYo of Rulings!

A subsequent potentially important step forward, where the original ruling against his arrest was overturned by Britain's highest court itself was overturned because one of the judges' wife worked for Amnesty International! But there had then been another decision by the House of Lords who subsequently ruled that Pinochet did not have immunity from prosecution on charges of gross human rights violation. In fact, April 15, 1999 saw Jack Straw, the Home Secretary in Britain, reveal that he had given authority for extradition proceedings of Pinochet, to Spain, to go ahead.

France was also re-evaluating whether it can prosecute Pinochet in France, for crimes against humanity. (The families of two French men who had been killed in Chile had their complaints thrown out by a previous magistrate.)

On October 8, 1999 a British Magistrate decided officially authorized Pinochet's extradition to Spain. (Also check out this link to a Democracy Now radio show interview for more about this ruling.)

Just as this was turning out to be a successful case for human rights, in mid January 2000, Jack Straw, British Home Secratary, claimed that medical doctors had declared Pinochet was unfit to stand trial and had to be returned to Chile. The leading doctor said that he did not claim he could not stand trial, as this is beyond his area of responsibilities and expertise. However, the way it was put, Straw had misled the members of Parliament.

This ended up allowing Pinochet to be released. He returned to Chile, in apparent good health. However, there his immunity was revoked and at the beginning of December, 2000, a Chilean judge ordered the arrest of Pinochet in order to try him, while Argentina has also been seeking extradition. While in the middle of January 2001 there was initially a U-turn, at the end of January 2001, Pinochet's charges were reinstated.

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Political Will

There had been an intense debate between the universal jurisdiction of international law, used as the basis for the arrest, and the claim that this violates national sovereignty. Many political factors have prevented effective resolution of this issue thus far. Double standards when it comes to speaking out about trying some people but not others because there may have been a political motive in the past does not help either.

Perhaps another thing emerging from this of importance is that there seems to be a possibility that other brutal Latin American dictators of the past could also be brought to justice.

As mentioned in the opening quote above, some have pointed out that while people like Pinochet can potentially be bought to justice, others from more powerful nations have hardly ever been held accountable. However, while there is a lot of credibility to that argument, it is also not an excuse not to try anyone at all! If the stronger nations are able to prosecute former dictators and others, who they have sometimes supported, especially in the name of humanity and democracy, then hopefully, more people in these countries become aware of these issues, and slowly make their own leaders accountable as well, by applying the same high principles that they preach onto others.

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US Involvement In Chilean Destabilization

Some have noted USA's surprising relative silence on this matter of human rights -- probably because it has emerged, that in the 70s, Kissinger covered up torture and other abuses in Chile by the Pinochet Regime.

Recently declassified (but censored) official documents show how much the US has been involved in the coup in the 70s, due to US interests and fears of communism and in Chile. (See also this news report for more information about that.)

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More Information

For more web resources, check out the following:

• The British newspaper, Guardian On-line documentary.
• The OneWorld.net Pinochet Dispatch.
• The National Security Archives have declassified documents on line about the role of the US in Chile.
• The Pinochet Prosecution from Human Rights Watch provides updates and reports.
• Chile and the End of Pinochet, by Marc Cooper from The Nation Magazine, Feb 26, 2001, looks at some of the issues surrounding the Chilean military's acknowledgment of dumping political opponents into the sea during the Pinochet dictatorship.
• this link from Foreign Policy In Focus.

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