Britian Arrests Ex-Dictator Pinochet

Former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who has never faced judge nor jury about the thousands of people who died or disappeared during his 17-year reign of terror, was under arrest in a London medical clinic Saturday after a request from Spain for his extradition.

The Chilean government said it will file a formal protest against the unusual move by British authorities, arguing that the former head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces still has diplomatic immunity as a senator for life in Chile and that he traveled to London on his official passport.

British officials say diplomatic immunity does not apply in this case.

Police detained the 82-year-old Pinochet on Friday night at the exclusive clinic where he underwent surgery on a disc hernia, a painful spinal disorder that has hampered his walking in recent months.

Pinochet was arrested on an extradition warrant filed by Spain in connection with the slayings of Spanish citizens in Chile in the decade after he seized power Sept. 11, 1973, in a bloody coup against Socialist President Salvador Allende.

“The arrest has taken place at the specific request of the Spanish authorities,” said a Scotland Yard spokeswoman who declined to be identified.

She said a court date had not yet been set.

The spokeswoman declined to confirm the clinic where Pinochet was being held, but dozens of Latin American protesters gathered outside the private London Clinic, where Pinochet reportedly had been registered under a false name. They held up photographs of people who disappeared during the Pinochet years and waved banners calling him “asesino,” assassin, and thanking “querida Espana,” beloved Spain. Police in flak jackets stood by, and the clinic itself was under police guard.

News of Arrest Explodes in Chile

The news of Pinochet’s arrest exploded on the streets of Chile, where he still provokes passionate and widely divided sentiments eight years after he stepped down as dictator and almost a year since he retired as commander of the army.

Right-wing admirers of Pinochet, who believe that he saved their country from communism, expressed outrage at the arrest and demanded that British authorities release him immediately.

Retired Gen. Luis Cortes Villa, director of the Pinochet foundation, which promotes Pinochet’s image and provides him an office and staff, called the arrest “an act of cowardice.”

“If a person is in bed convalescing, and they come in and tell him he is under arrest, that is an act of the greatest cowardice,” Villa said. “They did not respect the doctor, who opposed this action.”

On Saturday evening in Santiago, Pinochet’s son led a demonstration outside the British and Spanish embassies that turned violent.

“All Chileans are upset,” said Augusto Pinochet Hiriart, a business executive, who was accompanied by about 200 protesters.

The group marched from the embassy of Britain to the embassy of Spain, where they began throwing objects, banging the fence and struggling with guards. Chilean police detained several demonstrators but then released them.

Rightist political parties planned to protest outside the embassies again today.

Meanwhile, the general’s many critics on the center and left celebrated the sudden blow to a leader reviled for his authoritarian rule who had been seen as untouchable.

“This is good news, the best news we have had in a long time,” said Viviana Diaz, leader of a group of relatives of people killed during the dictatorship. “Now we have the possibility that Pinochet can be interrogated about what happened to our relatives.”

Human rights activists in Chile and internationally have long hungered to get Pinochet into the docket for questioning in connection with the more than 3,000 people who were killed for political reasons during his dictatorship and at least 1,000 others who remain unaccounted for after having been detained by security agents. Tens of thousands more were imprisoned, tortured and exiled.

Many foreigners, including Spaniards and Americans, were among the victims.

In Chile, it was never possible to take Pinochet to court because of an amnesty law he pushed through that covers crimes carried out before 1978, when most of the worst abuses allegedly were committed.

Moreover, he was commander in chief of the powerful armed forces until March, when he was appointed to a Senate seat that gave him continued immunity for life.

Pinochet’s previous trips to England were heavily guarded secrets. This trip, his first during the Labor government, came to light after he was denied a visa for France and when word of his admittance to the clinic and Oct. 9 surgery leaked to the press.

His presence in Britain raised criticism in left-leaning circles last week, where some commentators called Pinochet a “terrorist” and asserted that not to arrest him would contradict the Labor government’s self-styled ethical foreign policy.

Spaniards Probing Deaths of Citizens

On Tuesday, Spanish Judge Manuel Garcia Castellon, who is investigating the deaths of Spaniards in Chile during Pinochet’s rule, asked Britain to allow Spanish authorities to take a deposition from Pinochet.

The following day, Spanish Justice Baltasar Garzon also asked Britain to detain Pinochet for questioning in a case he is investigating about an organized plan of repression allegedly implemented by the military regimes of Chile, Argentina and Uruguay in the 1970s and 1980s called “Operation Condor.”

Both judges have hinted in the Spanish press that they may not have sufficient evidence against Pinochet to secure his extradition.

Garzon reportedly speeded up his request, however, because he feared that Pinochet planned to leave London soon.

Garzon has a long record of prosecuting human rights violators in Spain and Latin America. He led a major investigation of Spain’s dirty war against the Basque separatist group ETA and sent 10 officials from the former Spanish government of Felipe Gonzalez to prison last summer. He has also secured indictments against former officials of the Argentine military regime for their involvement in the slayings of Spanish citizens in that country.

Pinochet’s arrest warrant was issued on an “initial request” by Spanish authorities, who now have 40 days to make a formal extradition request, according to a British Home Office spokeswoman.

In a statement issued in Porto, Portugal, where Chilean President Eduardo Frei was attending the annual Ibero-American summit, the Chilean government said it was “filing a formal protest with the British government for what it considers a violation of the diplomatic immunity which Sen. Pinochet enjoys.”

The statement, read by acting Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez, demanded “that steps be taken to allow an early end of this situation.”

Chile has previously said it does not recognize the authority of foreign courts over incidents within Chile.

British officials, however, said their law recognizes two types of immunity: state immunity, which covers heads of state and government members on official visits, and diplomatic immunity for people accredited as diplomats.

Pinochet fits into neither category, an official in the British Foreign Office said.

Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office, meanwhile, said the issue is “a matter for the magistrates and the police.”

Spanish Foreign Minister Abel Matutes, also attending the Ibero-American summit in Portugal, said his government “respects the decisions taken by courts.”

Details of Pinochet’s arrest and legal situation in Britain were sketchy. British police, Home Office and Foreign Office officials stuck to short, prepared statements.

Revered by Some, Despised by Others

According to Villa, the director of the Pinochet foundation in Chile, several police officers entered Pinochet’s hospital room and spent several hours with him, barring the entry of medical personnel and others.

Villa called for Pinochet supporters to “mobilize” and pressure Chile’s center-left government to fight the move, although he lauded the response of the center-left government so far.

Largely because of the economic prosperity established under his regime, Pinochet retains the loyalty of at least a third of Chileans, polls show.

However, many others despise him and have been agitating intensely for him to face punishment now that he has relinquished the command of the army.

Pinochet’s arrest exacerbates the divisions within the center-left governing coalition of President Frei, a cautious Christian Democrat.

Over the bitter objections of coalition leaders who were persecuted under the dictatorship, Frei has chosen to maintain good relations with Pinochet and shield him from investigations and official sanctions.

The intensity of the repudiation of Pinochet around the world seems to surprise his admirers and even those in the government who defend him despite their distaste for the dictatorship. The government has consistently scoffed at the two investigations in Spain.

Although he was aware of those investigations, Pinochet did not seem concerned about their potential repercussions when he departed for England on Sept. 22. He has traveled to London before for medical care and sometimes to visit weapon factories.

This year he was joined by his wife and two daughters, and he decided to extend his stay when doctors recommended the operation for a hernia that is affecting his spinal column.

In a rare interview in his plush London hotel published in the Oct. 19 issue of the New Yorker magazine, Pinochet complained about the accumulating number of criminal cases against him in Chile and Spain.

“Reconciliation has to come from both sides,” he said in the article, adding that his opponents should “put an end to the lawsuits. There’s more than 800 of them. . . . They always go back to the same thing, the same thing.”

Miller reported from London, Rotella from Buenos Aires.

* IMPUNITY SHATTERED: Arrest raises hope that justice may reach tyrants who have been shielded at home. A32

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Profile: Augusto Pinochet

The former Chilean dictator was arrested in London by British authorities acting on a Spanish warrant.

* Born: Nov. 25, 1915

* Residence: Santiago, Chile

* Education: Graduated military academy in 1936; two years at University of Chile in Santiago, studying law and social sciences; completed War College studies in 1952.

* Career highlights: Commander of the army, Pinochet seized power in a bloody coup Sept. 11, 1973, beginning 17 years of iron rule. He disbanded Congress, banned political activity and began a harsh campaign against leftists. He survived an assassination attempt in 1986. On March 11, 1990, he stepped down but remained army commander until March and then became senator for life.

* Interests: Roman Catholic; admires leaders such as Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Charles de Gaulle, Spain’s Francisco Franco.

* Family: Married to Lucia Hiriart Rodriguez; has two sons, three daughters.

* Quote: “Not a leaf moves in this country if I am not the one moving it.”