From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Date: 05 Nov 92 07:21 PST
Subject: CHILE: PARTIES OPPOSE COURT DECISIO
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700759:000:3944
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Nov  5 07:21:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: CHILE: PARTIES OPPOSE COURT DECISIO

/* Written 12:13 am  Nov  5, 1992 by newsdesk@igc.apc.org in
igc:ips.englibrary */ Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all
rights reserved.  Permission to re- print within 7 days of
original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: CHILE: PARTIES OPPOSE COURT DECISION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
ABUSES

santiago, nov 2 (ips)-- political parties here have lashed out at
a supreme court decision to have army and ex-secret police agents
accused of human rights abuses committed during the dictatorship
of general augusto pinochet tried by military courts.

they say the ruling is aimed at guaranteeing the impunity of the
perpetrators.

parliamentarians of the co-governing socialist party (ps)
described the ruling as ''aberrant'' while the opposition allende
democratic left movement (mida) said it was thinking of filing a
constitutional accusation against the supreme court judges.

the court stopped a civil judge from continuing to investigate
disappearances of opponents of the sep.1973 - mar. 1990 pinochet
regime, blamed on army officials and former security service
agents.

the decision, made public on friday, can cause cases like that of
professor alfonso chanfreau, whose whereabouts have remained
unknown since he was detained in 1974, to end up in army archives,
a fate met by many other charges.

judge gloria olivares had been heading the investigation, in which
she questioned army colonel miguel krasnoff and other former
agents of the pinochet dictatorship.

human rights groups have highlighted the fact that no judge had
been able to collect as much evidence as olivares on human rights
violations committed by the national intelligence directorate
(dina), pinochet's first secret police force.

olivares was even able to find out where former dina agent oslaldo
romo was hiding in brazil. as a result of her investigation, romo
will probably be extradited to santiago this week.

romo was a neighbourhood leader in santiago during the government
of president salvador allende, overthrown by the military in 1973.
he later served in the dina when it was led by krassnof, now head
of an army division in southern chile.

accused of involvement in about a hundred disappearances,
including that of chanfreau, and other human rights violations,
romo was detained in sao paulo on jul. 29.

leaders of the christian democratic party (pdc) and the ps, both
members of president patricio aylwin's ruling coalition, rejected
the supreme court's decision as well as its argument that
olivares' abuses were committed ''during wartime.''

were this so, the court should at least accept the fact that
wartime crimes are not pardonable, in keeping with the 1947 geneva
convention, ps senator jaime gazmuri said. (more)
----

pdc deputy andres aylwin, the president's brother, said the
resolution was ''lamentable and worrying.'' he said that for 19
years the military courts had acted ''as judge and party.''

''no one can maintain that those who made people disappear acted
in line with their duty and, moreover, it is untrue that there was
a war in chile,'' he stressed.

gladys marin, a presidential hopeful for the communist party, one
of the groups which make up the mida, called the supreme court
decision ''a provocation'' and said there ''will be no peace or
justice in chile if this type of measure continues to be
protected.''

she added that the constitutional accusation her grouping was
contemplating was based on the idea that the supreme court judges
had committed ''a serious and shameful ethical abandon of their
functions.''

ps deputy hernan aguilo urged the government to back a bill
presented in parliament which bans military courts from treating
civil cases.

the bill was presented on oct. 14 and ''it is worrying that the
government has still not taken a stand on the issue,'' aguilo
said. (end/ips/trd/so/em-cs/kb/92)
----