Pinochet case to affect other dictators

By Jamie Wilson

LONDON: For Idi Amin, the former leader of Uganda currently growing gently fatter in a safe house in Saudi Arabia, and numerous other dictators trying desperately to keep a low profile around the world, the last seven days must have been a very confusing time.

First there was the image of Slobodan Milosevic, the so-called "Butcher of Belgrade", in the dock of the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague.

But then on Monday Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the man who allegedly ordered the deaths of more than 3,000 people while presiding over a cruel military dictatorship in Chile, walked free from a Santiago court after pleading ill health. After more than four years of monumental legal argument that began with his arrest from a hospital bed in London, Monday's decision would appear to have brought down the final curtain on the chances of the Chilean strongman ever facing justice.

On Monday night legal experts were still poring over the ramifications of the end of the Pinochet case. His detention was widely seen as a landmark decision in international law and is commonly regarded as being the catalyst for several other high profile arrests since, but will all the forward momentum gained in attempts to bring international pariahs to justice now be lost?

In Chile the appeal court decision was described as a "defeat for justice" by those trying to prosecute the general. In Spain, the lawyers who had sought to extradite Gen. Pinochet from the UK said his release "guaranteed impunity".

But in London experts in international law said precedents set by the case were still resounding throughout the world and his release would provide little comfort for others who transgressed the norms of civilized behavior.

British lawyer Geoffrey Bindman, who represented Amnesty International and several other human rights groups during the numerous Pinochet extradition hearings, said the fact he had escaped a full trial because of his age and ill health should give no comfort to other dictators who committed crimes against humanity.

"In fact it always seemed fairly unlikely that he would stand trial in Chile ... Whether he stands trial now is almost irrelevant," Bindman said. "The whole world knows he is responsible for torture and murder of thousands of people, and he has suffered enormous humiliation since his arrest in London."

"Putting him in jail would not really make a great deal of difference. The great significance of the case is the message it has sent to other would-be Pinochets who will not be able to rely on ill health to get them off the hook."

He said that while there was no direct connection between the Pinochet case and the extradition of Milosevic, the general's arrest had dramatically altered the climate of international opinion over the question of immunity for dictators.

"Until Pinochet most people took for granted that political power meant protection and immunity. But now it is accepted that it is possible for such people to be brought to justice."

Bindman said he believed that Pinochet's arrest also had an effect on the Chilean authorities and their willingness to allow the former dictator to be put on trial when he was returned to Santiago after Jack Straw, the then home secretary, had refused his extradition to Spain on medical grounds.

Reed Brody, the advocacy director for Human Rights Watch in New York, said: "Pinochet was a great leap forward, a lightning rod and an inspiration to victims all around the world."

"I do not think that yesterday's decision was based on the facts of the case. It is not a precedent-setting decision the way his arrest was, but based purely on whether he was medically fit to stand trial -- very similar to the British decision."

Brody added: "The Pinochet case has been a resounding victory from the beginning to the end. It has shown that not even a head of state is free from facing the rule of law and that everybody can be brought to justice."

"It has made the world a much more dangerous place for torturers and those who advocate violence, and has given hope to victims all over the world that they can bring their tormentors to justice."

Brody said that those who had already felt the Pinochet effect included Hissene Habre, the former dictator of Chad, who was arrested last year in Senegal on charges of torture, and is currently on the end of extradition attempts by Belgium.

A Dutch court is pressing charges against Desi Bouterse, the former military strongman of Surinam, for the 1982 killings of 15 government opponents, while Miguel Ricardo Cavallo, an alleged Argentinean torturer, is facing extradition to Spain from Mexico.

"Around the world you see a new, albeit uneven, international movement to end impunity of the worst abuses, reflected and strengthened by the Pinochet case," said Brody.

It used to be that if you killed one person you were tried and put in jail, but if you killed 1,000 you were given immunity. But thanks to Pinochet, his victims, the British police who arrested him, Judge Garzon and the (UK's) House of Lords (appeal court) that has all changed."

-- Guardian News Service