Some tyrants are hated even more for what they mean than for the hateful crimes they perpetrate against their own people and against humanity. Former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet is a case in point: his name arouses as much sadness as it does disgust. The grim, harsh and painful years of his rule are neither forgotten nor forgivable.
Human rights activists and victims of Pinochet's reign of terror hailed his recent arrest as a victory after 25 years of tireless efforts to bring him to justice for the atrocities he and his military junta committed against the Chilean people.
But being imprisoned in a place that charges $1,700 per night is surely not the retribution that the Chilean dictator deserves. Pinochet was responsible for the torture and carefully planned massacres of thousands of Chileans. Thousands more disappeared after his CIA-backed military coup in September 1973, which overthrew the government of Salvador Allende, the only democratically-elected government in Latin America at the time.
His arrest in London should be another lesson to the world's remaining tyrants that they are no longer tolerated, and that their crimes will never go unpunished.
The Chilean dictator should know how it feels to be incarcerated, but he must also be brought to justice so that his legacy of evil may be eradicated once and for all.
*This week's Soapbox speaker is an Iraqi journalist based in Cairo.
Some tyrants are hated even more for what they mean than for the hateful crimes they perpetrate against their own people and against humanity. Former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet is a case in point: his name arouses as much sadness as it does disgust. The grim, harsh and painful years of his rule are neither forgotten nor forgivable.