USA: Document release "no substitute" for justice

For the US Government, an unwelcome spin-off from the arrest in Britain 
of Chilean ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet was the way it refocused attention 
on the bloody coup that overthrew the democratically elected Government of 
Salvador Allende in 1973 and on the USA's role in it.

Tacit US support for those demanding Pinochet's release as a "head of 
state" aroused the anger of democratic rights activists everywhere, 
including in the US itself.

The BBC reported that "America's largest human rights watchdog, Human 
Rights Watch, says the Pinochet regime was responsible for the murder or 
disappearance of more than 3,000 people during his reign from 1973 to 1990.

"The organisation slammed the [US] Government for failing to take a firm 
stand on General Pinochet's possible trial in Spain on charges of genocide 
and torture."

The Clinton administration tried to tough it out until the British House of 
Lords ruled Pinochet was not immune from prosecution, clearing the way for 
his extradition to Spain.

Suddenly the US changed tack and released a flood of thousands of documents 
supposedly "revealing all" about US relations with Allende and Pinochet and 
the CIA directed coup.

Arch-reactionary Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State, publicly 
"regretted" past US support for military dictators in Latin America. She 
admitted that "many serious mistakes [were] made" by the US in Latin 
America, but blamed the Cold War.

"We are reviewing and releasing documents related to the Pinochet era", she 
said. "It is part of trying to deal with the terrible mistakes and problems 
of that time."

Human Rights Watch was not impressed, saying a review of records was no 
substitute for a policy in support of justice.

While releasing documents on Chile and Pinochet, the US Government is still 
giving the former dictator its support.

The Chilean Government has demanded that he be returned home, saying 
piously that it is up to Chileans to deal with their past.

But Chile's government has made it clear that in fact they would take no 
action against Pinochet and instead would allow him to resume his 
privileged and powerful position as a Senator.

This did not stop the US however from saying that Chile's request "demanded 
significant respect".

Human Rights Watch commented in its annual report that most dictators 
commit atrocities because they think they can get away with it, and 
refusing to bring them to justice simply reinforces that view.

Meanwhile, Madeleine Albright was asked if the US Government planned to 
close down the army's School of the Americas, where for decades Latin 
American officers have been trained in "counter insurgency" techniques, 
including torture and waging terror wars against civilian populations.

She defended the continued operation of the "school", claiming that 
Washington "could now instil democratic principles in the region's armed 
forces even if it failed to do so in the past".