Madrid - More than a decade after the Spanish judiciary
launched its crusade for universal justice, pressure is mounting on
the government to restrict judges' scope for investigating alleged
human rights crimes in other countries.
Israel has reacted angrily to a Spanish inquiry into a 2002 Gaza
bombing, urging the government and judiciary to do their 'utmost' to
stop what it describes as a Palestinian attempt to 'exploit' the
Spanish judicial system.
The Chinese embassy in Madrid called on the government to take
'immediate' measures against a probe into alleged deaths and
disappearances in Tibet, warning about 'damage' to bilateral
relations.
And at a time when Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero's government is hoping to reinforce relations with the
United States, two Spanish inquiries into torture at the Guantanamo
prison camp are threatening to create friction with Washington.
'We cannot become the judicial cops of the world,' said Carlos
Divar, president of the judges' organ CGPJ, arguing that such a role
would create 'daily diplomatic conflicts.'
Such criticism is not shared by many human rights activists, who
say Spanish judges have played an important role in increasing human
rights accountability.
The government was nevertheless expected to seek a legal reform
limiting international human rights investigations to cases with
obvious links to Spain.
The Spanish judiciary first became known for its interest in
issues of universal justice when National Court judge Baltasar Garzon
made a vain attempt to extradite former Chilean dictator Augusto
Pinochet from London in 1998.
The National Court, where Garzon works, is now investigating about
a dozen cases affecting eight countries: the United States, China,
Guatemala, El Salvador, Rwanda, Morocco, Germany and Israel.
Judges at the court are handling two inquiries into torture at
Guantanamo, one of which could lead them to investigate former US
attorney-general Alberto Gonzales and five other former officials of
the George W Bush administration.
Judges are also probing seven Israelis, including former defence
minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, over a 2002 Gaza bombing that killed a
Hamas leader and 14 others; and eight Chinese political or military
leaders, including three ministers, over the situation in Tibet.
Initially, such investigations involved Spanish citizens, but the
court has also begun accepting cases with no links to Spain, under
the principle of universal justice for grave crimes such as genocide.
Spanish legislation makes it relatively easy for associations to
lodge judicial complaints related to universal justice, a factor
which has led to such cases proliferating in Spain, the daily El Pais
reported.
However, the Spanish investigations have had little effect, the
only conviction being that of former Argentine navy captain Adolfo
Scilingo.
He was detained in Spain and sentenced to more than 1,000 years in
prison for helping to throw government opponents down from airplanes
during Argentina's 1976-83 military dictatorship.
Despite the lack of direct results, the inquiries are seen as
having increased pressure on suspected human rights abusers, making
it more difficult for them travel abroad for fear of arrest, and
encouraging their judicial pursuit in countries such as Chile and
Argentina.
US media interest in the Spanish probes into abuses at Guantanamo
could contribute to the prison camp coming under legal scrutiny in
the United States, human rights campaigners argue.
'As long as governments do not have the political will to create
an efficient tribunal, the only way is to introduce universal justice
in the largest possible number of countries,' lawyer Manuel Olle
said.
Opponents of such probes accuse judges of seeking notoriety by
launching high-profile international investigations while their
overstretched courts have difficulties dealing with ordinary
delinquency at home.
Others point out that Spain is ill-placed to judge human rights
violations in other countries, given that it has not dealt judicially
with the 1939-75 dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, who is
held responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of his
opponents.
But above all, the government is keen to avoid diplomatic problems
at a time when Spain is trying to increase its global stature,
seeking an entry into the Group of 20 (G20) and a bigger role in
attempts to achieve peace in the Middle East.
'Unequivocally democratic' countries should investigate their own
alleged human rights abuses before Spain gets involved, Justice
Minister Francisco Caamano said.
Spanish cross-border human rights investigations have also come
under pressure from prosecutors expressing reserves about one of the
Guantanamo probes, and opposing the case against Israel.
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