Kissinger: Mistakes May Have Been Made

As human rights campaigners demonstrated outside the Royal Albert Hall in London, the target of their protest, Henry Kissinger, today admitted inside it was possible that "mistakes were made" by the US administrations he served in.

But the former secretary of state questioned whether a court was the right place to examine them, saying it would be impossible to recall every one of thousands of cases.

The protesters, human rights activists joined by anti-globalisation demonstrators, accuse him of war crimes for his role in US actions in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

Some banged drums while others chanted "war criminal" and "this is what democracy looks like".

"No one can say that he served in an administration that did not make mistakes," Mr Kissinger told the annual Institute of Directors conference.

"The decisions made in high office are usually 51-49 decisions so it is quite possible that mistakes were made.

"The issue is whether 30 years after the event courts are the appropriate means by which determination is made."

The human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell this morning lost a court battle to have Henry Kissinger arrested for the "killing, injuring and displacement" of 3 million Vietnamese and Cambodian people.

During the 10-minute hearing Mr Tatchell was told that an arrest warrant could only be issued by the director of public prosecutions, and that, without his consent, no arrest could be made.

His bid was the second request concerning the former US secretary of state to be turned down this week.

Baltasar Garzon, the Spanish judge who tried to prosecute General Pinochet for crimes against humanity, was told by the Home Office on Monday that he could not question Mr Kissinger as a witness in connection with the Condor Plan, under which Latin America's military regimes agreed to eradicate their opponents in the late 1970s.

Both attempts had hoped to catch Mr Kissinger at the Royal Albert Hall.

Despite today's decision, Mr Tatchell insisted that he would fight on to bring the allegations against Mr Kissinger to court.

"This is not the end of the line. I will continue to seek Mr Kissinger's arrest on charges that, while he was US national security adviser to President Richard Nixon, he was the chief architect of a US war policy which resulted in the killing, injuring and displacement of 3 million Vietnamese and Cambodian people," he said.

"The victims of his crimes demand justice."

Mr Kissinger was Richard Nixon's national security adviser from 1969 to 1973 and secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 under Mr Nixon and Gerald Ford.