CONGRESSWOMAN MCKINNEY REJECTS FORMER PRESIDENT BUSH'S CALL FOR GENERAL PINOCHET TO BE RELEASED FROM CUSTODY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND RETURNED TO CHILE
MCKINNEY SAYS, "PRESIDENT BUSH'S PLEA FOR PINOCHET'S RELEASE APPALLS ME. COULD IT BE THAT THE C.I.A. HAS TOO MUCH TO HIDE?"

April 22, 1999

WASHINGTON D.C. -- Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA-4th), ranking Member of the House International Operations and Human Rights Subcommittee, today expressed her shock and total disbelief that former President George Bush would publicly call for the release of the Chilean dictator.

On Monday April 12, 1999 the Times (London) newspaper reported President Bush as writing a letter dated April 8, 1999 to Lord Lamont of Lerwick, the former Tory Chancellor, saying the case against the former dictator was a "...travesty of justice..." and that "General Pinochet should be returned to Chile as soon as possible."

Pinochet remains under house arrest in Wentworth, Surrey pending a determination by Mr. Jack Straw, the UK Foreign Secretary, for extradition to Spain for eight counts of torture. Formal extradition requests have also been received from the governments of Switzerland and France.

On October 21, 1998 Congresswoman McKinney and 35 other members of Congress wrote a letter to President Clinton urging him to authorize United States authorities to make classified information and documents available to Spanish authorities investigating General Pinochet.

Congresswoman McKinney says "...there is no travesty of justice in holding Pinochet in custody in England pending his extradition. On the contrary, to release him without facing trial would cause an injustice to the thousands who have suffered great harm under his regime."

A vast amount of evidence has been compiled by the United Nations, leading international human rights groups and the Chilean Truth and Reconciliation Commission accusing Pinochet and his military machine of extraordinary acts of barbarity against his own people. Electrocutions, beatings, attacks by police dogs, drownings and other gross acts of violence were inflicted on men, women and children. Amnesty International reports that some 1,198 people still remain classified as "disappeared" in Chile with no explanation as to their fate. The victims and their families have waited years for the truth. The international community has now joined as one to help those people discover the truth and all have welcomed the British decision to arrest Pinochet.

Also of great concern to Congresswoman McKinney is evidence of links between General Pinochet's secret police D.I.N.A., the C.I.A. and the fatal car bombing in 1978 in Washington D.C. in which the Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier and his American assistant Ronnie Moffitt perished.

"Why would former President Bush, the former Director of the C.I.A., choose to ignore this evidence and support a tyrant accused of brutal crimes against his own people and a cowardly act of international terrorism in our country. Is it because he doesn't want to see the extent of the CIA's relationship with the Pinochet regime and it's crimes exposed by a Spanish court?" asks McKinney.

"I'm appalled and horrified that a leader of this country would come forward at this time to support a man like Pinochet," says McKinney.

What message is former President Bush sending Slobodan Milosevic, yet another dictator bent on retaining power no matter what the cost. Its irresponsible for a leader of this country to be defending an international criminal like Pinochet, especially when our country is presently engaged in a major conflict with another international criminal like Milosevic.

McKinney says, "We should be sending a clear and consistent message to all the tyrants of the world who choose to brutalize innocent citizens. No matter where those crimes may be committed. They should all know that the world finds their conduct abhorrent and that they will always be held accountable for their crimes."