Plea to Britain in Kissinger witness case
Giles Tremlett in Madrid and David Pallister
Saturday April 20, 2002
The Guardian
British authorities have been asked to decide whether a Spanish
and a French judge representing the victims of General
Pinochet's military regime in Chile can travel to London next
week to interview Henry Kissinger as a witness in a terrorism
and genocide case.
The unprecedented request to interview a former US secretary of
state has come from crusading Spanish magistrate Judge
Baltasar Garzon, who had General Pinochet arrested in London,
and Judge Sophie-Helene Chateau from France. The Home
Office confirmed that both requests had been received and were
being considered "in the normal way."
If the requests are granted, Mr Kissinger will be summoned to
give evidence on oath in a magistrates court where he can be
questioned by the presiding district judge or the foreign judges.
The Spanish request, sent from the national court in Madrid on
Thursday, said that Mr Kissinger would be quizzed about
recently declassified CIA documents. It goes on to request the
presence of "the Spanish judicial authority", who is Judge
Garzon himself, and the private or public prosecutors involved in
the genocide and terrorism case that is still being pursued
against General Pinochet and others in Madrid.
Lawyers in Madrid said the request had been sent after British
police, via Interpol, confirmed that Mr Kissinger was due to give
a speech at the Institute of Directors' convention in the Royal
Albert Hall next Wednesday. The prosecution lawyer most likely
to accompany Judge Garzon would be the same man who
directed the Spanish extradition case against General Pinochet
on behalf of his victims, Joan Garces.
Mr Garces is a former aide to Salvador Allende, the socialist
Chilean president killed by General Pinochet's troops during the
1973 coup.
"I represent 4,000 victims who disappeared or were killed," Mr
Garces explained yesterday.
Although the case being pursued in the Spanish courts
stretches back to the 1973 coup itself, the request to interview
Mr Kissinger refers explicitly to the so-called Condor Plan - a
secret agreement believed to have been conceived by General
Pinochet designed to suppress leftwing opposition across
southern Latin America.
The plan allegedly caused the arrest, torture, disappearance or
deaths of thousands of people who were illegally deported back
to their home countries of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay,
Bolivia and Brazil.
Mr Kissinger has avoided similar requests to give evidence as a
witness to courts in Chile investigating the crimes allegedly
committed by General Pinochet's regime. He has similarly
avoided approaches from Judge Chateau, who is investigating
the deaths of four French citizens in Chile.
Mr Kissinger's spokesman has explained that, while the former
secretary of state is prepared to help the courts, he believes all
questions should be answered by the state department.
guardian.co.uk |
