Kissinger Turns Down French Court Summons
Compiled by Our Staff From Dispatches AP, Reuters
Wednesday, May 30, 2001
PARIS Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. Secretary of State, declined a request to appear Tuesday as a witness in an investigation into the disappearance of French citizens during the regime of Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean dictator, judicial sources said.
The U.S. Embassy in Paris told the court that Mr. Kissinger had other obligations and was unable to appear, the sources said.
French justice officials delivered a summons to a Paris hotel where Mr. Kissinger was staying on a private visit. Mr. Kissinger, secretary of state under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, was under no legal obligation to answer the summons. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy did not confirm that Mr. Kissinger had turned down the summons, but he said officials wished the court had not gone directly to Mr. Kissinger with the request.
"We understand that the court is examining a period when Dr. Kissinger was an official of the U.S. government," said the spokesman, Richard Lankford. "We therefore believe the court should present its request through government channels to the Department of State."
William Bourdon, a lawyer who represents families of French citizens who disappeared during the Pinochet regime, requested the summons. Mr. Bourdon said he believed that Mr. Kissinger's testimony was essential to the case because of exchanges between U.S. and Chilean secret services after the 1973 coup that brought Mr. Pinochet to power.
"A whole series of factors demonstrate that the U.S. administration watched very closely what happened in Chile, notably the situation of foreigners who had disappeared, therefore French people," Mr. Bourdon said. "Above and beyond the symbol he represents, Mr. Kissinger is a person who, through his answers, can contribute to finding the truth."
A French judge is looking into allegations that five French citizens who disappeared in Chile during Mr. Pinochet's military dictatorship were kidnapped and tortured.
(AP, Reuters, AFP)
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