-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] I had an email from someone this morning who does not think that Pinochet should be released. He should of course never have been arrested. Other writers have answered this rather better than I can. Boris Johnson is perhaps the most relevant as he does out of his way to state his DISLIKE of Pinochet. Telegraph Leading Article January 13th Straw's Clutches Jack Straw's announcement that he is "minded" to release General Pinochet in a week's time is an unusual way to resolve an extradition case - or, rather, to try to resolve it. When he decided to release the IRA terrorist Roisin McAliskey on health grounds rather than extradite her to Germany, the Home Secretary did not give the world notice of his intentions. In that instance, though, he did not have to worry about a potential challenge - legal or political - from Amnesty or his own Left wing. In this case, he obviously feels that he does. So, if - and at this stage it still is if - Chile's former president goes home next week, the Home Secretary will doubtless congratulate himself on a neat manoeuvre, successfully concluded. But it was open to him to release the general at any stage, as the House Of Lords pointedly reminded him nearly a year ago. Instead, by making the general stew in Surrey for more than a year and then acting only on medical advice, Mr Straw may have extracted maximum political advantage within the Labour Party. If General Pinochet does end up facing the courts in Chile, Mr Straw will doubtless feel even better. This, after all, has been a highly political affair right from the start. That probably explains why the Government has acted throughout, with almost total disregard for Chilean opinion and interests. The timing of this latest announcement, just days before the country holds the second round of its presidential elections, was particularly insensitive. So was the original readiness to go along with the request from a maverick Spanish magistrate for the general's extradition. Spain conspicuously (and, in the view of most observers, wisely) refrained from settling old scores in the wake of the Franco era. For it then to attempt, in effect, to override the Chileans' own delicate internal settlement after their dictatorship, was a gross abuse of national sovereignty. No wonder the case was bitterly resented by Chile's democratic government, and as Boris Johnson points out on the opposite page, unanimously condemned as "judicial colonialism" by its neighbours at the Iberian/South American summit last year. Relations between Latin America and both Spain and Britain could take years to recover. In Europe, meanwhile, a new principle of international law has been invented on the hoof, one that holds heads of government criminally responsible - but only on their retirement - for acts committed by their subordinates. Quite where this will end, no one can yet tell. Could ex-president Yeltsin be arrested and charged in connection with Russian conduct in Chechnya? That way lies mayhem. Or will this new principle be applied only to relatively powerless countries? Its exponents argue that the Pinochet case will serve as a warning to other despots to moderate their behaviour. But is could just as easily deter them from handing over power to democratic successors, as Pinochet did of his own volition, not the act of a tyrant. At the end if this case, when final tally is made, the law of sovereign immunity will be in a mess, where before it was reasonably clear; Spain will have been shown to have been hypocritical; and Britain - which welcomed the general as an official guest before arresting him - will have been made to look both dishonourable and indecisive. Extracts from Boris Johnson contributor article January 13th … (Pinochet's) imprisonment has been a political shambles and a legal farce. This was political, and not merely legal, from the minute that Garzon - who is also trying to extradite Signor Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister, and an assortment of Argentinean generals - served the warrant. Of course the British could have ignored it. It would, after all, have been the first ever application of its kind of the UN Convention against Torture. Of course they could have spotted that any such move would radicalise opinion in Chile and would be opposed by the Chilean government. Instead, undergraduate (note 1) memories came flooding back, of the coup against Allende, of candlelit vigils; and Pinochet became a cheap means for Labour to parade its evanescent conscience. If you need any evidence that this case was political, it was Peter Mandelson's attack on Pinochet's "gut-wrenching" crimes, or Blair's conference speech, in which he accused the Tories of being the party of Pinochet. The very Law Lords seemed infected by political bias. When Lord Justice Hoffman was forced to admit his links with Amnesty and his judgement was overturned. Indeed Jack Straw's decision to call for an independent medical assessment was political: there was nothing in law that demanded it. He did it because the whole business had become a nightmare. Britain has been condemned by the Iberian/South American summit, jointly chaired by King Juan Carlos and Fidel Castro, for "judicial colonialism". Chilean deputies have come to blows over attempts to expel the British ambassador from the Chilean parliament. Above all, Britain's actions have created a bizarre new doctrine of international law: that a former head of state can be arrested for crimes committed in his own country, even if his own country has no desire to arraign him, as soon as he travels abroad. It sounds wonderful, as tough essential principles of human rights were being extended across the globe. In reality, it means that national political settlements - delicate attempts to come to terms with the past - can be demolished by well-meaning foreigners (Note 2) attempting to show off their consciences. We have no business trying Pinochet, and nor do the Spaniards. Imagine if the Israelis decided they were going to try Boris Yeltsin, who recently visited the Holy Land as ex-President of Russia, for the bombardment of Grozny. Imagine if Spain arrested Lady Thatcher and tried to extradite her to Argentine for alleged crimes in Northern Ireland. Judicial colonialism is corrosive of democracy. We have patronised the Chileans long enough. We have struck our attitudes…. General Pinochet, it is high time you were on that plane. ………. This Pinochet debacle, one of the most disgraceful acts in British history, has been of no benefit whatsoever. It has damaged our relationship with Chile with whom we had had and unbroken accord for nearly two centuries. It has cost the British taxpayers millions (which the disastrous state of the NHS under "New Labour" suggests we can ill afford). It has made miserable the lives of scores of innocent people who have had to accept Pinochet as a neighbour who have to put up with the antics of the undisciplined left wing rabble baying on their doorsteps. Supporters of Pinochet's arrest - ask yourselves how you would like it if it were on YOUR doorstep. But it was done for a purpose. To enhance "New Labour" particularly in the eyes of some of its most left wing supporters who feel that socialism is being betrayed. It is to enhance the image of that very dangerous Fascist Blair in his quest for absolute power first in UK - and eventually in Europe? Note 1. Straw was an almost "permanent" student (and a very tiresome one). >From there he went straight into politics. He has never grown up. Note 2. There was nothing "well meaning" about those in Spain or UK who connived at Pinochet's arrest - just the usual left-wing double standards of those who have always totally ignored the mass murders by Stalin and Mao and other fellow left wingers. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soap-boxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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