The language used in the House yesterday would suggest Gen Pinochet had been already tried and convicted, complained businessman Mr Edward Haughey.
Mr Haughey said Ireland had a long historical relationship with Chile. Gen Bernardo Higgins, the liberator of Chile, had been the son of an Irishman. "In Ireland we are fair-minded. I think any man is entitled to be considered innocent until he is proven guilty." He was responding to condemnation of the Pinochet regime and to calls on the Government to support moves to have the former Chilean dictator extradited from Britain to face charges of involvement in the murder of Spanish nationals.
Mr Joe O'Toole (Ind), who was part of an Oireachtas group which visited Chile 10 years ago, said: "I saw what that man did. He stands in the proud tradition of Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin, Ceausescu and Milosevic."
Mr Paschal Mooney (FF) also asked the House to roundly condemn the murder of a number of journalists in the Kosovo region recently. The House should be given an up-to-date briefing on the situation there. The reported assigning of 50 Irish Defence Force personnel to the OSCE observer verification corps gave us a very real interest in happenings in Kosovo.