March 2, 2000

RE: British Decision Granting Chilean Torturer Total Impunity

The Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture was highly distressed today by the news about the decision of the British Home Ministry to send General Augustin Pinochet, the former Chilean tyrant and torturer, back to Chile with total impunity. This is a blatant violation of fundamental human rights instruments including Articles 6, 8 and 9 of the Convention Against Torture, which have confirmed torture as a crime against humanity speak to the prosecution of torturers and to the undertaking to make torture a extraditable offense. We were shocked by the fact that the decision was motivated by economic and political considerations and was made by a Minister who has no independent judicial power to make such an important decision. There was an inadequate and improper medical investigation, which proceeded without the participation of other independent medical experts, specifically from Spain and three other countries seeking Pinochet's extradition. Allegations about Pinochet's weakness and memory problems to stand trial should have been decided in the process of his trial, not prior to it.

Impunity is the biggest obstacles towards the global prevention of torture and the implementation of the international legal instruments against it. What is on trial here is not the criminal and tyrant Pinochet himself, but the system of oppression led by him which victimized thousands of innocent human beings during and after the coup d'etat of 1975. Sending Pinochet back to Chile in a military airplane is a travesty to the memory his numerous victims and a mockery of all human rights instruments and institutions and NGOs who are working indefatiguably towards the rehabilitation of torture survivors.

It is unfortunate that Chile is still haunted by the spectre of Pinochet. It has not been relieved of the tremendous pain and suffering inflicted upon it by the criminal Pinochet. Having Pinochet back in Chile will be a punch in the face of this ailing country. The Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture will work vehemently with the Chilean community and other NGOs to lobby the new government of Chile to go with its promise of bringing Pinochet to justice.

For more information, please contact Mulugeta Abai, CCVT Executive Director, at 416-363-1066, or email him at mabai@ccvt.org.