Human Rights Watch 1522 K Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20005 Telephone: 202 371-6592 Facsimile: 202 371-0124

Dr. Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle                                                                                                October 19, 1998
Presidente de la República
Palacio la Moneda
Santiago de CHILE

Dear President Frei:

 Human Rights Watch is writing regarding the Chilean government's misguided response to the October 16 arrest in London of General Augusto Pinochet. It is with great surprise that we have observed the Chilean government's actions to obstruct the course of justice based on the unfounded assertion of diplomatic privilege.

 The Chilean justice system has failed to investigate the crimes against humanity carried out by the Chilean military under the command of General Pinochet. Those  responsible for ordering or carrying out the abuses enjoy impunity. However, while domestic legal and political considerations in Chile may give the country's leaders grounds to explain their inaction, international law recognizes no such excuses.

 Human Rights Watch disagrees fundamentally with the Chilean government's claim that General Pinochet should benefit from diplomatic immunity because he traveled to London with a diplomatic passport. The general was not on diplomatic mission and was not participating in an official delegation in which diplomatic status would have been temporarily conferred. Indeed, the preamble to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, to which Chile is a party, clearly places the purpose of the convention within the context of work-related diplomatic activity, not personal business. It states, "[T]he purpose of such privileges and immunities is not to benefit individuals but to ensure the efficient performance of the functions of diplomatic missions as representing States." We understand that, as a courtesy, the Chilean government regularly provides diplomatic passports to members of the country's congress who travel abroad on official or personal business. In cases of personal travel with a diplomatic passport, however, the travel document may facilitate immigration and customs procedures but cannot be considered to change the diplomatic status of a non-diplomat.

 To act in concert with international norms, the Chilean government should facilitate the Spanish inquiry into the widespread and systematic violations of human rights committed by the Chilean military between 1973 and 1990—both by providing all requested evidence of atrocities and by formally waiving diplomatic immunity so as to avoid wasting time litigating this frivolous claim.
 

Sincerely,
 

 José Miguel Vivanco
Executive Director, Americas Division

cc: Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Robin Cook
The Honorable Ambassador Mario Artaza