About 100 people gathered in Geneva on Friday to protest Henry Kissinger’s presence at the annual meeting of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
This content was published on
1 minute
swissinfo.ch and agencies
Kissinger, now 87, had been invited by the IISS to deliver a keynote speech on power shifts and security.
The demonstrators, most of them from Chile, described the former US secretary of state as an “assassin”.
They were criticising Kissinger for his alleged role in the Chilean military coup of 1973, when General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the government of President Salvador Allende.
Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, who had also been invited to the IISS meeting, did not attend.
According to the foreign ministry, her decision not to participate had “nothing to do” with Kissinger or the related protest.
In his speech Kissinger said that Afghanistan’s neighbours needed to get more involved in finding solutions to the conflict there.
He also said that nuclear diplomacy with North Korea and Iran had produced no significant results.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Calmy-Rey hails common values with Chile
This content was published on
She was speaking in the Swiss capital, Bern, during a two-day state visit by her Chilean counterpart Michelle Bachelet, which started on Friday. On Saturday Bachelet visited western Switzerland. Having been shown around the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, she travelled with Calmy-Rey by ferry to Geneva, where she met Jakob Kellenberger, president of…
This content was published on
The ex-general who ruled Chile with an iron fist for 17 years was pursued by the Swiss justice authorities on several occasions. Foreign ministry spokesman Johann Aeschlimann said Chile had fortunately managed to free itself of Pinochet’s influence. “Chile today is a country of modern law, democratic and economically dynamic, with which Switzerland has good…
This content was published on
The Chilean foreign ministry has summoned the Swiss ambassador to Santiago, André Regli, to protest against the move. The Federal Migration Office announced on Wednesday that Patricio Ortiz Montenegro had been given a temporary residency permit. Ortiz was convicted of killing a police officer in 1991 but escaped from a Chilean prison five years later.…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.