BBC News Online: UK

Pinochet affair 'already a victory'

Dorfman fled Chile in 1973 after a coup led by the general toppled President Salvador Allende's socialist government.

In exile, his writings highlighted the plight of Pinochet's opponents. His acclaimed play about torture victims, Death and the Maiden, was made into a film starring Sigourney Weaver.

"I survived the way Pinochet shattered my life," he told BBC News Online.

"But when he does not repent, when he creates a country which does not allow democracy to be a full democracy, he is continuing to determine my life."

The writer feels the mere fact that the 83-year-old general is being detained in the UK, facing extradition to Spain, is an important victory for his regime's victims.

"The major goal of the extradition trial has already been accomplished, no matter what happens - whether Pinochet goes free or not.

"For Chile itself this has been a reckoning. Many Chileans had hoped the human rights abuses of the past, the past itself, would simply disappear.

"I think the Pinochet trial has forced us look one another in the face ... to speak to one another, to understand the past and understand that time is not going to solve the problem.

"In a way it has been a victory for the dead of Chile. They have demanded and be able to create the need for resurrection.

"That's very, very healthy for the us, very healthy for Chile, very healthy for the world."

Dorfman welcomes the precedent set by the extradition proceedings.

"[They mark] the end of impunity for heads of state when they have directed secret police to torture.

"It may also have been healthy for England to have been a champion of this, to say 'Dictators cannot hide on this island, they cannot come and retire here, they will be held accountable for crimes they commit elsewhere'.

"I really think it would be best if he were tried in Chile. I don't think there are the conditions for him to be tried in Chile - even if he is now under investigation.

"I don't think there's a real chance of his being ever, ever held accountable in Chile.

"What I really wish is that he should stand in front of his accusers, in front of the women of the disappeared, the women whose husbands he tortured, the women who he ordered tortured ... simply see them.

"I'm not interested in his being imprisoned. I think the most important thing has already been done.

"A grievous wrong has been done to many, many people - they believed there was no hope. There is some hope because someone who was a horrible tyrant is now under house arrest.

"That restores some balance to a horrible century, a century which I think will go down as the most terrible century in the history of humanity."

Relevant Stories

Exiled writer urges Pinochet to repent (22 Oct 98 | The Pinochet file)

Internet Links

Duke University Literature Program: Ariel Dorfman
Amnesty International: Ariel Dorfman on Memory and Truth

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

In this section

Next steps for peace
Blairs' surprise over baby
Bowled over by Lord's
Beef row 'compromise' under fire
Hamilton 'would sell mother'
Industry misses new trains target
Quins fightback shocks Cardiff (From Sport)
Vodafone takeover battle heats up (From Business)
IRA ceasefire challenge rejected
Thousands celebrate Asian culture
Christie could get two-year ban (From Sport)
Colleagues remember Compo (From Entertainment)
Mother pleads for baby's return
Toys withdrawn in E.coli health scare
Nurses role set to expand (From Health)
Israeli PM's plane in accident
More lottery cash for grassroots
Pro-lifers plan shock launch
Double killer gets life
Cold 'cure' comes one step closer (From Health)
Straw on trial over jury reform (From UK Politics)
Tatchell calls for rights probe into Mugabe
Ex-spy stays out in the cold
Blair warns Livingstone (From UK Politics)
Smear equipment `misses cancers' (From Health)
Boyzone star gets in Christmas spirit (From Entertainment)
Fake bubbly warning
Murder jury hears dead girl's diary
Germ warfare fiasco revealed (From UK Politics)
Blair babe triggers tabloid frenzy
Tourists shot by mistake
A new look for News Online