Republican News · Thursday 8 August 2002

Officers jailed but Pinochet escapes justice

BY SOLEDAD GALIANA

On 10 July, the Supreme Court in Chile upheld a controversial verdict that found Pinochet mentally unfit to stand trial for human rights crimes during his 17-year rule

On Monday 5 August, Chilean judge Sergio Muñoz sentenced twelve former members of the military to prison for their role in the assassination of union leader Tucapel Jiménez under the rule of dictator Augusto Pinochet.

The murdered man's son and human rights campaigners have criticised the sentences as being too lenient. "The sentences are extremely brief," Tucapel Jimenez Junior said. "The court should have given a better indication to the country that these crimes should not happen again."

Judge Muñoz condemned retired Major Carlos Herrera to life imprisonment for the kidnap and killing of Tucapel Jiménez in 1982. Herrera admitted the murder of Jimenez but said he was only "following orders". The other eleven members of the military received lesser sentences for their roles as accomplices or for covering up the assassination.

Retired General Ramon Alvarez, a former army intelligence chief, received a ten-year sentence for ordering the killing, while three other retired generals - Hernán Ramírez Rurange, Hernán Ramírez Hald and Fernando Torres - received suspended sentences for covering up the crime.

Rurange was head of General Pinochet's bodyguards in the 1980s, and General Torres, a lawyer, ran the army's legal division and was Pinochet's closest legal adviser. The others convicted are former military officials of lower rank, court officials said.

Jiménez - who headed the now dissolved National Information Centre between 1980 and 1986 and was at the time one of Chile's most influential union leaders - was discovered on the outskirts of the capital Santiago with five bullet wounds and a slit throat. He was reportedly organising one of the first major protests against the Pinochet regime when he was killed.

estimated 3,200 people were killed for political reasons under General Pinochet's rule, according to the civilian government that succeeded him. For years, the former dictator has been fighting a series of legal battles over deaths and disappearances that occurred between 1973 and 1990.

On 10 July, the Supreme Court in Chile upheld a controversial verdict that found him mentally unfit to stand trial for human rights crimes during his 17-year rule. About 1,000 human rights activists and Communist Party members marched through the streets of the capital, Santiago, to protest the decision.

Chileans are now facing the likelihood that their former military leader will never stand trial. Relatives of the thousands of people who disappeared during the general's time in power described the ruling as "shameful". "Once again, the country is being lied to; once again, justice is not being done in our country," one of their leaders, Viviana Diaz, told Spanish radio.

Human rights lawyers in Spain who originally sought to bring General Pinochet to court, said the ruling was a blow against efforts to end his impunity.

d Amnesty International spokeswoman Virginia Shoppee said it was a shame the authorities had not been able to find answers for the victims' relatives.

Roberta Basic has direct experience of the victims' relatives' and survivors' need for answers. Basic works as a university lecturer in England, but from 1992 to 1996 she worked for the truth and reconciliation commission in Chile (Corporación Nacional de Reparación y Reconciliación), set up by President Patricio Aldwyn.

Roberta Basic's work was to research and document information on human rights violations that ended in disappearances and executions. The mandate for the Truth Commission in Chile only allowed its members to undertake the investigation of those cases involving death or disappearance, excluding those who survived torture, whose cases were not considered. "The fact that these people have not received any kind of reparation it is very unfair, because the ones who should have got the most out of it are those who can still make a different in their lives", criticises Roberta Basic.

For Roberta, the dealings of the Truth Commission provided a very deep and profound experience. "The fact of living through it has an intrinsic value, because at least you tried. You do not achieve all you expect, but I compare it with trade union negotiations - they never get all they want. But the process of public discussion and recognising that the issue of the disappeared and executed is an issue that affects the country, not only the individuals or families who suffered, is very important. From the point of view of my own expectations as a human rights activist the Commission did not achieve what I was expecting. But from the point of view of how the process has marked changes in the lives of some individuals, I may feel that it was justified, though this does not mean it has been politically or socially satisfactory, because it would be important that it also impact on the whole social body."

Roberta Basic believes the process should not end with the work of the Truth Commission: "There is somehow an apathy in the legal system, but at the same time, the cases move on and the remains of the people who were disappeared are found and identified and then there is a burial. And these cases bring new strength to the Association of Relatives of the Disappeared, because they reinforce the belief that the remains of others can also be found."

Many relatives of the disappeared and executed received reparations, which Basic believes might help restore their dignity. Disappeared, executed and victims of torture were portrayed as criminals by the Pinochet regimen. After 20 years, the tables have turned and it is Pinochet and his followers who are being internationally denounced for the massacre of trade unionists, students, social and community leaders, politically aware artists and other dissident voices.

The truth commission could not prosecute the perpetrators of the massacres. A group of Chileans in England decided they would do what the state could not because of its negotiations with the military. They have revealed the names of the perpetrators, case by case, on the internet, at www.memoriaviva.com.

Internationally, Chile is now seen as a democracy. But this is a democracy run by Pinochet's constitution and legislation, and where the coalition government (socialists and social democrats) find themselves justifying and protecting those who not so long ago threatened their lives and the lives of their friends and families. The divisions in Chilean society erupt every time there is an attempt to bring the man responsible for the disappearances and murders, former general Augusto Pinochet, to court.

"What is really disappointing is that some people who were in the struggle with you have now positions from which are trying to justify what had happened," says Roberta Basic. "I can well remember an event that marked my decision to leave the country. Somebody who I will not name but who was selected to work in the Defence Ministry appeared on TV to explain that individuals and not organisations had been targeted by repression. I could not cope and I wrote a letter to this person in which I said: 'So, the day that the police were running after you and me they were running after so and so and Roberta Basic, as individuals, not after the protesters who represented the opposition to the dictator.' And then I decided I had to go."

Roberta Basic is attending the War Resister International Conference (2-8 August) at DCU, Dublin, which has brought together peace, social justice and human rights activists from around the world to discuss how they can make the world less violent and less militarised. The conference theme, Stories and Strategies - Nonviolent Resistance and Social Change, holds new meaning in these changed political times. Storytelling and stories are powerful threads, which help people learn from each other, connect to each other, heal from painful experiences, and make truths known.

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Leaked Turkish documents reveal imminent Iraq attack

BY ERTUGRUL KURKCU, coordinator of the Independent Communication Network in Istanbul and a freelance journalist. Article provided courtesy of MERIP Press Information, Note 103

Top Pentagon brass may have doubts about the feasibility of the circulating war plans for Iraq, but George W Bush's envoys have convinced Turkish decision-makers that a US military operation to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime is inevitable.

official document, recently leaked from Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's office, unveils a shift in Ankara's feelings toward the expected operation: having failed to forestall it, Turkey will try to make the best of it.

Code-named "B.020" and signed by Ecevit, the document reads in part: "There is no doubt that the emergence on our southeastern borders of a democratic Iraq with good relations with the West is extremely valuable for our strategic interests." In a televised interview last week, a visibly worried Ecevit admitted that "US officials have already expressed their determination for an attack against Iraq. They don't simply imply this, but openly express it. We are preparing both politically and militarily."

US officials have already expressed their determination for an attack against Iraq. They don't simply imply this, but openly express it. We are preparing both politically and militarily. - Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit

THE RED LINE

A particular clause of B.020, known in military circles as "The Red Line", states Ankara's major concern about the prospect of the replacement of the Ba'thist regime in Baghdad. If the Bush administration is determined to go to war, the Turkish government has underlined its determination to prevent, at any price, Kurdish independence in a post-Saddam Iraq, or the emergence of any Kurdish entity with recognized standing in the international community. Even Kurdish autonomy within a federated Iraq, Turkey fears, may stir up trouble on its southeastern border if the central government in Baghdad does not tightly control the rival factions which presently control two Kurdish enclaves in northern Iraq. "Ethnic minorities in Iraq should be prevented from establishing separate administrations," states B.020.

"Declarations in this direction will be a cause for intervention on our part." The document continues: "Relations [between Baghdad and the Kurdish parties] should be based on a broader framework ensuring that the [larger Kurdish] region remains politically and economically dependent of Turkey."

EU AND US AGENDA

Meanwhile, on August 2 the Turkish parliament rushed to pass a raft of legislation designed to bring Turkish law into conformity with the European Union's "Copenhagen Criteria" - a precondition to start negotiations for Turkey's accession to EU membership. Over the vocal opposition of the right-wing nationalist party, which holds the largest number of seats in Parliament, pro-EU lawmakers abolished capital punishment, automatically suspending the death sentence upon Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), and granted the Kurdish minority the right to educate children and broadcast in the Kurdish tongue. With the nationalists likely to make these new laws the central issue in early parliamentary elections scheduled for November 3, there will seemingly be little public pressure on Ankara not to follow Washington's lead on intervention in Iraq.

There are further signs that Turkey believes the die is cast for Iraq. In late July, US military officials reportedly visited Turkey to discuss details of building a "defense shield" over Turkish airspace against Iraqi Scud missiles. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yusuf Buluc denied that discussions were held with US military officials. But "there have been talks with NATO military officials," he confirmed. Turkey has NATO's second biggest army.

On August 2, the Turkish National Security Council reportedly amended the National Security Policy Document, placing "the threat from the east" at the top of Ankara's "threat perception" list.

AMBITIONS TO ACCESSION

There is good reason to believe that the shift in Ankara's position toward Iraq is related to its need for US backing to bypass considerable opposition among EU members for including Turkey in the prospective EU enlargement.

With the new legislative amendments in hand, Ankara expects to receive a negotiations schedule - a timeline for Turkey's inclusion in the EU - from the Copenhagen summit in December. EU Enlargement Affairs Commissar Gunter Verheugen welcomed the August 2 laws as "significant steps" toward answering the EU's concerns about human rights and the rights of minorities in Turkey. But Verheugen has previously warned that the EU "will not grant Turkey a schedule unless all conditions for accession are met by Ankara," and the EU will be watching the implementation of Kurdish rights measures and curbs on torture and other human rights abuses in police stations.

Tensions between the EU and Turkey are also likely to rise this autumn, when the EU will discuss the candidacy of Cyprus for accession. The Mediterranean island, 100 miles south of Turkey's coast, has been divided into a Turkish north and a Greek south since 1974. Turkey still controls 36 percent of Cypriot territory. The EU has decided to start negotiations for the accession of the Cyprus Republic, as the sole legitimate government of the entire island, by 2004. Turkey strongly opposes the prospect, threatening to annex the north of the island should Cyprus gain EU membership before Turkey does.

LOOKING AHEAD

But lessened resistance to a prospective US attack on Iraq may not translate into actual military cooperation, which Turkish analysts warn will require a special parliamentary authorization. "Without such a decision, the government will be faced with legal difficulties," says international relations expert Turgut Tarhanli of Istanbul's Bilgi University.

"Turkey can not base such cooperation on NATO membership responsibilities, for NATO binds member countries in a defensive alliance against aggression. There is no NATO decision on this matter either."

A parliamentary mandate for war on Iraq would be still more complicated, if the parliament's ideological complexion changes radically after the upcoming elections. Polls currently show the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party, headed by former Istanbul mayor Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at the head of the pack. In the past, Islamist parties have been outspokenly opposed to Turkey's facilitation of US policy toward Iraq, including the no-fly zones policed by US and British fighters from the Incirlik air base.

Other civil society figures, however, accept the government's opinion that the Iraqi regime is destined for collapse under US pressure, and call upon Ankara to advance its own initiative for regional peace and security before a war starts. "The scenarios concerning Iraq's future have until now been shaped in London and Washington, and that is wrong," says retired diplomat Ozdem Sanberk, director of the liberal think tank TESEV (Economic and Social Studies Foundation of Turkey). "Iraq's future should be decided in Baghdad. Yet the present regime in Iraq does not allow that. Therefore Turkey should convene an international conference on Iraq."