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The
twilight years in our lives, if we reach them in reasonable
health, should be a time for slowing down, sitting
with the grandchildren, reflecting on a life from
which we hope others learned something positive -
in short growing old gracefully. And if we manage
79, then being pestered as a result of past misdemeanours
is the last thing we seek.
Henry
Kissinger, the former Secretary of State and Nobel
peace prize winner, is having no such luck. Already
facing accusations over crimes against humanity in
Vietnam, Cambodia, East Timor, Chile, Cyprus and East
Timor, recently released US State Department documents
have linked him to Argentina’s Dirty war of two
decades ago. The documents were made available to
the authorities in Buenos Aires following a pledge
made by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
in 2000.
Much
of Kissinger’s woes he is inclined to blame on
the writer Christopher Hitchens and his ‘cabal’
of Henry haters. True, Hitchens enhanced his reputation
with his book The Trial of Henry Kissinger in which
he made the case for prosecuting the former diplomat
for war crimes. But Patricia Derian, an assistant
secretary of state for human rights under President
Carter - hardly one of Hitchens’ cabal - said
of Kissinger‘s relationship to the Argentine
military, ‘I think he was complicit. He was in
a position to influence them greatly, both in and
out of office. Mistreatment of citizens by a government
was given the nod.' Nevertheless, it is symptomatic
of the arrogance of power that those intoxicated by
it invariably see a world of ‘bitter wee men’
intent on visiting misfortune on them.
The
release of the documents will come as no surprise
to Kissinger. He more than anyone else will have been
familiar with their contents long before they came
to public scrutiny. According to the Miami Herald
the documents indicate that the Argentine military
junta ‘believed they had the green light from
Washington - and perhaps Kissinger - to carry out
the brutal campaign’.
The
international stage upon which Herr Henry once strutted
with unbridled impunity has now become a dangerous
arena where he now must proceed with care. The development
of a growing international legal climate making it
easier for judges to reach beyond the boundaries of
their own nation states coupled with a greater ability
of bereaved relatives to make themselves heard have
combined to make the once surefooted Kissinger feel
he is walking on eggshells. Already this year he has
been forced to abort a trip to Brazil fearful that
a Brazilian judge might order his detention. In Paris
he fled his hotel in a bid to avoid French officials
seeking to serve him with judicial papers relating
to the murder of French nationals in Chile. In Chile
itself, where he helped stage a coup thirty years
ago this month against a democratic government, Kissinger
is fast becoming a persona non grata with the Supreme
Court which is considering questioning him about the
events leading up to and including the atrocity of
September 11, 1973.
On
March 24, 1976 Argentine armed forces overthrew the
government of President Isabel Martinez de Peron.
A three-man military junta, headed by General Jorge
Rafael Videla took charge. Under their reign the military
waged a brutal campaign ostensibly against left wing
guerrillas Up to 30, 000 people, most of whom were
dissidents - including writers, lawyers, human rights
activists and trade unionists - and civilians with
no connection to guerrilla activity were arrested
and disappeared. ‘Tex’ Harris, a US Political
Officer in Buenos Aires during the military onslaught,
spoke of ‘a massive, coherent, military effort
to exterminate Argentine citizens.’
In
1983, with the collapse of the military regime, a
national commission, appointed to investigate the
disappeared, reported on the organised kidnappings
of men women and children. It pointed to the existence
of around 340 holding centres where torture and murder
were practiced routinely. Now the released documents,
which have been scrutinised by investigative reporters
Martin Edwin Andersen and John Dinges, reveal how
the efforts of the U.S. ambassador in Buenos Aires
at the time to place a brake on the Argentine military
were rendered useless by the refusal of Kissinger
to endorse him. Dinges, who covered the Dirty War
for the Washington Post claims to ‘now have contemporaneous
documents that show that the message given to Argentina,
as well as other South American dictatorships, by
Washington was, at best, ambiguous and, at worst,
encouraging of human rights violations.’
It
is inevitable that Kissinger will escape any formal
judicial punishment. The most that can be hoped for
is that he will go down in the annals of history on
a par with Milosevic and Himmler. But the manner in
which US society responds to the cries for justice
will help shape how Uncle Sam is perceived outside
its own borders. In order to more securely protect
all its citizens it should move collectively to acknowledge
that at least one of them is a major war criminal.
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