Pinochet�s legacy: no dictator should have legal impunity
Transnational Institute - 12.12.2006 10:27
Amsterdam, 11 December 2006. The legacy of Chilean dictator Augusto
Pinochet should be a renewed fight against impunity for human rights
violations, according to the Transnational Institute, whose former
director Orlando Letelier was murdered by agents of the Pinochet regime
in 1976.
Pinochet�s legacy: no dictator should have legal impunity
For immediate release
�Pinochet�s death brings a premature end to the struggle to see him
brought to justice for his crimes, but his name lives on in infamy� said
Fiona Dove, director of the Transnational Institute (TNI). �His legacy
should be that no ruler should have legal impunity for human rights
abuses perpetrated under their watch.�
On 21 September 1976, agents of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet
detonated a car bomb in Washington DC that killed Orlando Letelier, a
former Chilean cabinet minister who was TNI director at the time, along
with Ronni Moffitt, a colleague from the Institute of Policy Studies.
The Letelier and Moffitt murders were among over 3,000 deaths and
disappearances conducted by the Pinochet regime. Although Pinochet�s
death deprives the victims of justice, the efforts of family members,
lawyers, artists, activists, elected officials, journalists and others
in Chile and internationally have ensured that the dictator�s name is
now synonymous with the human rights violations committed during his rule.
Pinochet�s arrest in London in 1998 destroyed the illusion that
�sovereign immunity� could protect the dictator from accountability for
his crimes. International human rights activism also helped galvanise
the Chilean legal system, resulting in several cases against him.
The Pinochet Precedent: online dossier
 http://www.tni.org/pinochet/index.htm
Orlando Letelier: online dossier
http://www.tni.org/letelier/index.htm
Further details
Fiona Dove, Director
+ 31 20 662 66 08
Oscar Reyes, Communications Officer
+44 7739 827 208,  oscar@tni.org
 E-Mail: andrea@tni.org  Website: http://www.tni.org
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