68
wrote that "the demands of the military prosecution were based on confessions extracted under torture and on prior interrogations by military personnel and intelligence officers, without the participation of defence lawyers " and that "the decision of the military prosecution that a state of internal war existed in Chile before 11 September 1973 is a violation of the principle of the non-retroactive nature of penal legislation". The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights described the judicial process in Chile as "a massive violation of the guarantees of due process of law”. In the particular trial referred to, the death penalty was passed on four defendants, and it was only one of many where international concern, including action by AI, preceded the commutation of the sentence.
In September 1974, General Pinochet declared that the state of war was over, but instead of a return to normal legal standards, a state of siege "for internal defence" was declared, with the retention of the military tribunals which have been responsible for the worst legal excesses of the present regime. The state of siege was renewed in March 1975 for a further six-month period.
A new security code was decreed on 8 May 1975. While not protecting the legal rights of detainees, it increased from 48 hours to five days the period during which detainees could be held for interrogation, without official legal obligation to inform their relatives. Although there is overwhelming evidence that the 48- hour rule was rarely obeyed, this represents a distinct and official deterioration in the position of political prisoners. The judicial safeguard of habeas corpus has been rendered almost totally ineffective by the willingness of the magistrates to accept replies from the minister concerned that the person was detained by virtue of the powers conferred by the state of siege, and the consequent failure of the magistrates to insist on the person being produced in court.
It is during this period between detention and recognition of the prisoner as a detainee that the worst instances of torture take place. This is corroborated both by the report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and by innumerable written affidavits, eyewitness reports and personal testimonials. The problem of torture and disappearances which at the middle of 1974 seemed to be receding slightly, has been sharply re-defined with the establishment in June of a new agency, the Dirección de Investigación Nacional (DINA), to coordinate the intelligence activities of all four services. It is responsible solely to the ruling military junta. Consequently, AI sections and groups have been asked to act swiftly and frequently in attempts to locate individual detainees, inform the authorities of international concern and achieve formal recognition of the prisoner's status in a recognized detention camp.
A paltry number of prisoners have been released during the year under different amnesties. In many cases, despite being detained for considerable periods, the people released have never been charged, tried or sentenced, and the “oppor- tunity of exile" offered to some appears unjust. In cases where the released detainees remain in Chile, no form of legal redress seems available.
Colombia
Although no prisoners were adopted by Amnesty International in Colombia in 1974-75, information received from peasant associations indicates that serious human rights problems exist in isolated rural areas. AI Deputy Secretary General
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.