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Letter to the Minister Jack Straw
Committee against Impunity in Chile (The Netherlands)

The Rt Hon Jack Straw, M.P.
Home Office
50 Queen Anne's Gate
London SW1H 9AT
Fax: +44 (0)171 273 3965
12^th April 1999

Dear Sir,

With this letter the Dutch Committee against Impunity in Chile in the case of former dictator Pinochet respectfully calls on your honour to face the historical responsibility of promoting international law and the very idea of justice itself. Most of us are either direct victims Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, relatives of victims or just conscious citizens who wish mankind to find an answer to the serious violations of Human Rights committed under Pinochet’s regime.

We beg you once more to make a decision that will let our world see the fulfilment of the huge hope for justice initiated with Pinochet’s detention and furthered by the judicial system of your country as regards crimes against humanity.

Though the Law Lords have significantly limited the number of charges that can be considered for extraditing Augusto Pinochet, we wish to stress that over forty crimes of disappearance, torture and conspiracy to torture were perpetrated by Pinochet after September 1988.

In spite of the veredict of the Law Lords we nevertheless want respectfully to draw your attention on the particularly serious cases of torture, represented by each of the 1,198 people who were "secretly imprisoned" and who "disappeared" on Augusto Pinochet’s orders. The victims are all identified in Judge Baltasar Garzon’s indictment. Being the crime of "secret imprisonment-disappearance" a "continuous crime" as long as the prisoners have not been found, whether dead or alive, these 1,198 crimes of torture ought to be mentioned among the charges permitting the extradition of the former dictator.

As undoubtedly will be of your knowledge the Declaration of the UN General Assembly on the protection of people against "forced disappearance" (18 December 1992), with reference to the International Convention against Torture, states that "secret imprisonment-disappearance" are crimes of torture.

The concept is corroborated by the treaty on Civil and Political Rights (art. 7 and 10.1), the Declaration against Torture of 1975 (art. 1), the Convention against Torture of 1984 (art. 1). In the case of "Kurt vs. Turkey" (25 May 1998), the European Court for Human Rights has also considered that a person’s "secret imprisonment-disappearance" is equivalent to a situation of torture as defined by the Convention against torture of 10 December 1984. It has to be emphasised that jurisprudence made by the European Court for Human Rights is compelling for E.U. member states and their national Courts.

In these conditions, as underlined by Judge Garzón, to deny the relatives of victims the right to know what happened to their loved ones on the mere ground that their arrest occurred before September 1988 would reinforce and extend the suffering resulting from the illegal imprisonment of their relatives. It is a fact which, in itself could constitute an cruel and inhuman treatment.

We are aware that the Chilean government, in order to exempt Pinochet at whatever price from the rigours of justice, will once more insist on the illusory argument that the former general can and should be tried in Chile. All enquiries carried out independently by Human Rights organisations show that this is fallacious. The latest one is the report produced by the International Federation of the Leagues of Human Rights; they sent an enquiring commission to Chile between 3rd and 10^th March 1999. Its conclusion was categorical: 1^st: In Chile, there exists no condition for the successful judgement of Pinochet. 2^nd: In this context the Chilean authorities’ current insistence — claiming that if Mr Pinochet is returned to Chile Law would be carried out in an even more satisfactory manner and the indictment against him will be even heavier — is not more trustworthy as their earlier claims.

Furthermore it is quite likely that Mr Pinochet’s lawyers, or the Chilean government, or even the Vatican, will again call upon "compassionate reasons" which they will argue would plead in favour of releasing the former General. We merely beg that you balance humanitarian reasons: those of victims and those of their torturers, that you consider too the long years of suffering that the victims’ relatives have gone through. Many of the latter are even older than Mr Pinochet. They would resent the release of a man who is responsible for such suffering as a new form of torture which would prolong and reinforce the torture already imposed on their loved ones by their persecutors.

Finally, we want to express our firm support towards you in these moments when unscrupulous politicians may try to weaken your moral strength by directing campaigns against you which may seem ridiculous, but are nonetheless harmful.

In the hope that you will take a decision that will honour the United Kingdom and, more broadly, the progress of International Justice please receive our most sincere gratitude.

Yours sincerely,

Committee against Impunity in Chile (Netherlands)

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