Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 03:12:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: Marwan Dalal <dmarwan-AT-yahoo.com>


The Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=284708


Writs and demos over Chile coup hound Kissinger
By Hugh O'Shaughnessy and Robert Mendick
14 April 2002

 The Chilean judge prosecuting Augusto Pinochet for
crimes committed during his 17-year dictatorship, is
seeking to extradite Henry Kissinger, the former US
Secretary of State, to Chile.

The threat will overshadow a visit to London next week
by Mr Kissinger, who will find himself hounded by an
alliance of human rights campaigners and
anti-capitalist demonstrators over his alleged
connivance at General Pinochet's 1973 coup in Chile,
as well as his part in the Vietnam war and America's
secret bombing of Cambodia.

Mr Kissinger's planned speech to the Institute of
Directors at the Royal Albert Hall on 24 April will be
met by a mass protest – and preceded by 10 days of
"Kissinger-bashing", beginning with a "Get Kissinger"
press conference launched by Labour MP, Jeremy Corbyn,
at the Houses of Parliament.

On 4 July last year Juan Guzmán, the Chilean judge,
submitted some 30 questions to Mr Kissinger about his
relationship with Gen Pinochet; the questionnaire was
passed on by the US State Department, but he has not
so far chosen to reply, and is not expected to do so.
Nor is Washington likely to hand over to an
international criminal tribunal a man who served as
secretary of state to two presidents.

Any application for his extradition, however, would
increase the embarrassment and pressure on Mr
Kissinger, who last year quit France in a hurry rather
than submit to a summons to appear before A judge
Roger Le Loire, who was looking into the disappearance
of five French citizens in Chile during the Pinochet
years.

Mr Guzmán told The Independent on Sunday he would be
pressing for Mr Kissinger's replies this month and if
they did not come, extradition proceedings would
follow. Such action would mirror the move by the
Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzón, which led to the
arrest of Gen Pinochet in London in September 1998. "I
have been in touch with the US embassy here in
Santiago, and they say they have no idea why replies
have not been sent to my questions," said Mr Guzmán.

Guy Taylor, of the anti-capitalist movement Globalise
Resistance, said there would be a "direct action
blockade" when Mr Kissinger appeared at the Albert
Hall. "We are calling on the Home Secretary not to
allow him into the country," he said. "He presided
over one of the most brutal eras of US foreign policy
in history."

Mr Kissinger is still threatened by a $4.9m civil
action from Joyce Horman for the death of her husband,
Charles Horman, during Pinochet's 1973 coup, which
formed the basis of the film Missing. He is also being
sued in Washington by members of the family of the
former Chilean army commander, General René Schneider.
Schneider was assassinated in Chile in 1970 in what
was seen as a plot, aided by the CIA, to prevent the
election of the Socialist President Salvador Allende. 




The Chilean judge prosecuting Augusto Pinochet for
crimes committed during his 17-year dictatorship, is
seeking to extradite Henry Kissinger, the former US
Secretary of State, to Chile.

The threat will overshadow a visit to London next week
by Mr Kissinger, who will find himself hounded by an
alliance of human rights campaigners and
anti-capitalist demonstrators over his alleged
connivance at General Pinochet's 1973 coup in Chile,
as well as his part in the Vietnam war and America's
secret bombing of Cambodia.

Mr Kissinger's planned speech to the Institute of
Directors at the Royal Albert Hall on 24 April will be
met by a mass protest – and preceded by 10 days of
"Kissinger-bashing", beginning with a "Get Kissinger"
press conference launched by Labour MP, Jeremy Corbyn,
at the Houses of Parliament.

On 4 July last year Juan Guzmán, the Chilean judge,
submitted some 30 questions to Mr Kissinger about his
relationship with Gen Pinochet; the questionnaire was
passed on by the US State Department, but he has not
so far chosen to reply, and is not expected to do so.
Nor is Washington likely to hand over to an
international criminal tribunal a man who served as
secretary of state to two presidents.

Any application for his extradition, however, would
increase the embarrassment and pressure on Mr
Kissinger, who last year quit France in a hurry rather
than submit to a summons to appear before A judge
Roger Le Loire, who was looking into the disappearance
of five French citizens in Chile during the Pinochet
years.

Mr Guzmán told The Independent on Sunday he would be
pressing for Mr Kissinger's replies this month and if
they did not come, extradition proceedings would
follow. Such action would mirror the move by the
Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzón, which led to the
arrest of Gen Pinochet in London in September 1998. "I
have been in touch with the US embassy here in
Santiago, and they say they have no idea why replies
have not been sent to my questions," said Mr Guzmán.

Guy Taylor, of the anti-capitalist movement Globalise
Resistance, said there would be a "direct action
blockade" when Mr Kissinger appeared at the Albert
Hall. "We are calling on the Home Secretary not to
allow him into the country," he said. "He presided
over one of the most brutal eras of US foreign policy
in history."

Mr Kissinger is still threatened by a $4.9m civil
action from Joyce Horman for the death of her husband,
Charles Horman, during Pinochet's 1973 coup, which
formed the basis of the film Missing. He is also being
sued in Washington by members of the family of the
former Chilean army commander, General René Schneider.
Schneider was assassinated in Chile in 1970 in what
was seen as a plot, aided by the CIA, to prevent the
election of the Socialist President Salvador Allende. 



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