Calling dictators to account

Leaders who trample on the human rights of others can be held to account anywhere in the world. We must take note that this is the way of the modern world.

The military dictatorship that ruled Chile in the past is cast in a new light by Gen. Pinochet's arrest. The question the international community is asking is how history will interpret that dictatorship.

If a dictatorship is responsible for crimes against humanity, those responsible are being brought to justice by the international community. An accord was adopted in July that established an international war crimes tribunal for just such a purpose.

The atrocities the tribunal was set up specifically to address were primarily those in Bosnia and in Africa. But the approach is just as appropriate to bring to justice dictatorial regimes like those of Pinochet involving such crimes anywhere.

-- The Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo