The Pinochet case signified the beginning of the end of their impunity" General Pinochet was originally arrested on Oct. 16, 1998, as he lay in a London clinic recuperating from back surgery.
Activists hoped that the flood of national and international attention Stang's murder brought would be a catalyst for the end of endemic impunity, in which violent offenders frequently evade punishment.
But while its police, civil servants and judges compare well with those in the rest of the region, its politicians do not.If the end of de facto impunity is not enough to encourage Brazil's politicians to mend their ways, the ficha limpa (clean record) law has added another weapon to the judges' anti-graft arsenal.
Could this be the beginning of the end of the age of impunity?
It may even presage the end of a culture of impunity in French public office.
The trial marks the end of 20 years of impunity for hundreds of officials under amnesty laws, which were annulled by the Supreme Court last year.Going DutchCharles Taylor, a former Liberian president accused of overseeing the killing of thousands of civilians, was flown from Sierra Leone to the Netherlands, where he is to be tried for war crimes at a UN-backed Special Court at The Hague.
The minister, who asked journalists to make risk assessments before they cover "ongoing operations", also said: "As we have promised earlier, We are committed to make sure to an end of impunity, and all the killers of the journalists will be arrested and put to the justice".
It may even be the beginning of the end of a long, hellish period of impunity in the tragic heart of Africa.
