Bring the dictator to justice

Gold-braided, spaghetti-western bad guy or saviour of democracy? General Pinochet, the former dictator of Chile, thought he could not be touched when he flew into Britain clutching his diplomatic passport.

Now, amid international controversy, the 82-year-old general faces possible extradition to Spain to answer charges of mass murder and torture.

It is the first sting in the tail for a dictator who believed he was immune from prosecution for a host of crimes allegedly perpetrated during his bloody regime.

Oxford University's expert on Pinochet is Alan Angell, lecturer in Latin American Politics. He backed the unprecedented capture of the Chilean.

He said: "I think it is right and proper that any dictator should be brought to justice. There are some worrying consequences for short-term political stability in Chile, but that does not override the essential good in bringing the dictator to justice." As leader of the Chilean military, General Augusto Pinochet seized power from the Marxists in a violent coup in 1973 and immediately began eliminating his political opponents.

Anyone seen as a threat to his supreme power was arrested as a revolutionary, tortured by his soldiers and often never seen again. Around 3,000 people are believed to have died at the hands of the military junta he oversaw during his years in power.

Many families are still hunting for loved ones who fell victim to his brutality. Helia Lopez Zarzosa, 49, of Cumnor Hill, Oxford, wants to know the fate of her sister's fianc, who has been missing since 1973. He was arrested after being accused of being a revolutionary and has not been seen since.

Between 1974 and 1990, Pinochet dissolved Congress, banned political parties and created an atmosphere of unparalleled terror for those opposed to the regime.

He was only forced to step down after winning less than 50 per cent of a vote in 1988. When Chile finally returned to civilian rule in 1990, Pinochet stayed on as head of the army. At the time he was the world's longest-serving military leader, and he still has thousands of supporters in Chile. When he stepped down as Commander in Chief of the army in March, he called himself the "saviour of democracy" and said his mission had been accomplished. He was reported as saying: "It was obvious that Chile was headed for self-destruction, so the armed forces took over to defend our country's integrity. A careful study of that period would conclude that the military had to act or else the country would have failed. We have now completed our mission."

Following his arrest last week, thousands of Chileans took to the streets and burned British flags. Chile's hard-won democracy is clearly very shaky and its loyalties and passions remain divided.

Many Chileans believe Pinochet acted justly in his crackdown on left-wingers and applaud the military's economic reforms, which have brought prosperity.

Mr Angell said: "By the end of his regime there was considerable economic progress and substantial sectors of the population benefited."

But Pinochet's opponents insist his free-market capitalism made the rich extraordinarily wealthy, while the poor suffered intolerable living and working conditions. Mrs Lopez Zarzosa said if a road needed building it would be finished within a week - but the workers would be flogged to death to do so.

Now Pinochet, known for his exceedingly smart uniforms with glittering gold braid, faces a less than golden future. He is currently under armed guard at a London clinic, wanted in connection with the torture and murder of 79 Spanish between 1976 and 1983. An international warrant for Pinochet's extradition has been issued.

Pinochet, a life senator in Chile, cannot be tried in his home country because of his senatorial status.

Any extradition proceedings would start with hearings before the chief metropolitan magistrate in London. If the decision went against him, Pinochet would have the right of appeal to the Lords judicial committee, and following that the issue could be referred to Home Secretary Jack Straw. Ironically, in his younger days, Mr Straw took part in protests against Pinochet.

At 82 years old, it is unlikely Pinochet will repent. This middle-class Chilean was brought up in the army and will fight for his own freedom and place in history.

It is the only way he knows how.

HOLLYWOOD TACKLES THE HIDDEN HORROR

The movie Missing investigates the alleged US involvement in the coup which led to Pinochet defeating the Marxists in 1973.

Starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, the 1982 film is a slightly fictionalised account of the disappearance of American expatriate writer Charles Horman in the Chilean capital Santiago, just after the military coup. His wife and father search for Charles, growing closer as they run into the official stonewalling of the American embassy and Chilean authorities, who insist there is no trace of Charles.

The 1994 movie Death and the Maiden, based on Ariel Dorfman's play, also examines the Pinochet regime. Set in an unnamed South American country, it centres on a former torture victim - Sigourney Weaver - and her lawyer husband, who has been asked to investigate human rights violations under the former military regime.

When her husband brings home Dr Roberto Miranda, played by Ben Kingsley, she is certain the doctor is the man who tortured her.

Seeking vengeance and the truth, she begins to subject the doctor to some of the same treatment she endured. FAMILY HEARTBREAK

Academic Helia Lopez Zarzosa is still hunting for her sister's fianc, missing in Chile for 25 years.

Mrs Zarzosa, 49, of Cumnor Hill, told the Oxford Mail yesterday how her family was tortured during Pinochet's reign of terror. This week she protested outside the London clinic where the former dictator is being treated.

Her mother, brother and former husband were tortured in prisons run by the 82-year-old general. Mrs Zarzosa fled Chile and has lived in Oxford for a year. She is applying to study for a PhD in the city.

Her sister Maria never married and lives in Europe.

Maria's husband-to-be, Hector Carcamo, was arrested a week after Pinochet seized power in 1973. Mr Carcamo, a philosophy student, was falsely accused of being the leader of the Revolutionary Movement of the Left.

In 1977, the Chilean foreign ministry told Mr Carcamo's family he had died four years earlier but his body was never found - leaving them wondering if he was secretly being held in a concentration camp.

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