The crimes of Dr Henry A. Kissinger that history will not absolve

Kissinger may have escaped being brought to trial for crimes against humanity, murder, torture, etc., but history has recorded his acts and the people of Chile, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Cyprus, Bangladesh and others will never forget his deeds.

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PARIS was Dr Henry A. Kissinger's favourite city and he often visited it. During the US–Vietnam peace talks, he is supposed to have visited it nineteen times. He once claimed that he knew every nook and corner of Paris.

In the month of May 2001, on one of his visits, the criminal division of the French gendarmerie visited his suite at the Ritz Hotel carrying summons issued by Judge Roger Le Loire, to appear at the Palais de Justice the next morning to answer questions about the "disappearance" of five French citizens in Chile during the Pinochet regime.

That evening, under the cover of darkness, Kissinger fled Paris. It is unlikely that he visited his favourite city ever again.

Kissinger had reasons to be worried. In October of 1998, General Augusto Pinochet, the butcher of Chile, who ruled that country for seventeen years from September 1973 to March 1990, was arrested in London. During his reign, hundreds of thousands were killed, tortured or disappeared.

The arrest was made on the basis of an indictment for human rights violation committed in his native Chile by the Spanish magistrate, Baltasar Garzón. Pinochet claimed immunity from prosecution as a former head of State.

The Law Lords in the UK in a 3:2 decision ruled that international crimes, such as torture, did not grant him immunity. However, the judgment was set aside on technical grounds later. Those reasonings in the judgment are for another piece.