ICFTU OnLine
255/981124/ND/SH

Brussels/Elsinore November 24 1998 (ICFTU OnLine): The Brussels-based ICFTU today announced that it was bringing a civil action in the Belgian courts to contribute, with ample proof, to the efforts to win redress for the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the former Chilean dictator, currently held in London. The move was announced at a meeting of the ICFTU governing bodies which opened today in Elsinore (Denmark).

The civil suit concerns the extremely serious crimes committed against trade unionists in Chile after 11 September 1973, the date of Pinochet’s military coup. "Hundreds of democratic trade unionists were arrested during the military junta’s dictatorship, and scores were tortured, assassinated, or "disappeared" after their capture by the former Chilean political police, the DINA" explains the ICFTU.

As the ICFTU’s four-yearly Reports on Activities show, material published in 1975 and 1979 for its 11^th and 12^th World Congresses, one of the first decisions of the junta was to dissolve the country’s principal trade union organisation the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT). From then until 1978 countless trade unionists were arrested and tortured, or subjected to cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment. Numerous trade unionists were also sentenced to death in summary procedures under emergency jurisdiction, with no possibility of appeal, and executed. Many of them were also the victims of extra-judicial executions, or executions for attempted escape. Others were the subject of forced "disappearances", sentenced to internal exile, or made to leave the country.

To corroborate its accusations, the ICFTU also makes reference to the Report on the Trade Union Situation in Chile by the International Labour Office’s Investigation

and Conciliation Commission (ICC), completed in 1975. It was following the many complaints, backed by witnesses’ evidence, presented after the 1973 coup d’état by the ICFTU and other international trade union organisations to the ILOs Freedom of Association Committee that the ILO’s Governing Body decided to refer the case to the ICC. After an on the spot investigation, including meetings with many of the victims of anti-union repression, in some cases at their place of detention, the ICC cited in its report the principal allegations contained in the complaints lodged by the trade union organisations and appended a list of the names of hundreds of trade union leaders killed, tortured, detained, disappeared or forced into exile. In its conclusions and recommendations, the ICC noted the high number of repressive measures against trade unionists.

"This suit brought before the Belgian courts reflects the ICFTU’s determination to do absolutely everything in its power to ensure that the judicial process follows its course and that General Pinochet is made to answer for his crimes before the courts" stated Bill Jordan, General Secretary of the ICFTU. In the immediate aftermath of the General’s arrest the ICFTU had warned its affiliates of what it saw as the "thinly disguised risk that commercial interests and so-called reasons of state take precedence over international law and public morality."

Whatever the decision of the five British law lords whose task is to rule on the immunity granted to Pinochet, to be made public today, the ICFTU considers this legal action important both for its symbolic value and because it forms part of the ICFTU’s efforts to promote international criminal justice. The ICFTU has supported proposals to create an International Criminal Court since 1997.