Monitor

All the News of the World The Sunday papers consider the arrest of Augusto Pinochet

TYRANTS ARE usually greeted with handshakes, not handcuffs when they visit Britain, which is why the arrest of General Augusto Pinochet in London yesterday will delight many who have waited decades for this country to change. The arrest and launch of proceedings against an evil man has an importance beyond the event itself, amply merited though it is. Robin cook has demonstrated his "ethical dimension" to foreign policy has real muscle.

By acceding to the Spanish request to detain the former dictator, Labour has shown that its support for an international criminal court for the trial of war criminals is not pious cant. The fact that Pinochet's large establishment fan club can no longer save him from justice offers a chance that in future tyrants will not sleep so easily in their beds.

The Observer

THE GENERAL arrived in London last month with his wife and two daughters. In an interview in the latest issue of New Yorker magazine, he says England is his favourite country - "the ideal place to live" - because of its civility, moderation and its respect for rules. Ironically, it was Britain's respect for the rules of international law that led to his arrest. Pinochet was arrested on an Interpol warrant.(Maurice Chittenden)

The Sunday Times

GENERAL PINOCHET was always much keener on the British than on Americans, whom he considered "rude". Outfacing the US government he despised, he sent another of his squads to blow up one of Allende's ambassadors in his car at Dupont Circle, in the heart of the diplomatic quarter in Washington. He gave extensive help, by contrast, to British forces in 1982 as they engaged in war with Chile's neighbour and traditional enemy, Argentina, over the Falklands. Britain became a principal supplier of arms to Chile. (Hugh O'Shaughnessy)

The Independent on Sunday

IN THIS age of the peace process we are constantly urged to look to the future. Yesterday's terrorist (Yasser Arafat) is today's partner for peace. Relatives of the victims of the PLO find that hard to swallow, but they are urged to do so for the sake of peace. If Pinochet should face trial despite authorising a transition to democracy, why must not South Africa's de Klerk, let alone all the ex-Communists, some of whom have been reinstalled in office by fair means or foul since 1989?

How long ago was it that Tony Blair was toasting the Chinese leaders who had authorised the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989? (Mark Almond)

The Mail on Sunday