Sir, - Secretary of State Ms Madeleine Albright, said, as her department issued its annual human rights report (The Irish Times January 31st) that human rights will remain a key element in US foreign policy. In a wide ranging report, which fingered many countries' record in this regard, she criticised the human rights' abuses committed in Chile during the military regime of General Augusto Pinochet and observed that "many known perpetrators of abuses remain on active duty in the Armed Forces, making a mockery of civic justice".
In 1991 the Rettig Commission for Truth and Reconciliation in Chile found that Mr Carmelo Soria, Spanish citizen and director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America, had died in Santiago in 1976 as a result of torture at the hands of known DINA agents (secret police) including United States citizen Michael Townley.
Townley was later involved in the car bomb assassinations of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and his secretary Ronni Moffat in Washington DC. He is now living in the US protected by Ms Albright's department which refuses to hand over to the authorities in Chile information it has relating to international terrorism carried out by known individuals on the orders of Pinochet's military junta from 1973 to 1990.
Without this information Mr Carmelo Soria's daughter Carmel has been unable to pursue justice through the military courts as the known perpetrators of her father's murder remain on active duty in the Armed Forces, making as Ms Albright rightly points out, a mockery of civic justice. Ms Soria continues to receive active support from the German, Spanish, and Italian governments in her quest for justice and was disappointed that President Mary Robinson was unable to meet with her on her visit to Chile in 1995.
Last year Townley was sentenced, in his absence, to 15 years by the courts in Italy for his part in the attempted car bomb assassination of Chilean politician Bernardo Leighton and his wife Anita Fresno in Rome. Yours, etc.,
Braemor Road, Dublin 14