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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