The world seems much occupied recently with assigning responsibility for historical crimes and coming to a satisfactory settlement of accounts. The problem is complex, and nowhere more so than in Chile, where attempts to prosecute the former dictator have brought to light information that may well bring a permanent change. PNS commentator Roger Burbach is the director of the Center for the Study of the Americas and author of "Globalization and Postmodern Politics: From Zapatistas to Hightech Robber Barons" (Pluto Press).

The prosecution of Augusto Pinochet has reached a new level of intensity. Carmen Hertz, one of the attorneys who filed charges against Pinochet for his role in the 1973 "Caravan of Death," believes he "will soon be interrogated and indicted to stand trial."

Pinochet's lawyers, intent on stalling the entire process, argue that new health exams revealed "vascular dementia" due to recent strokes and should exempt Pinochet from further prosecution. Chilean law allows those charged with a crime to escape trial only if they are unable to function in a court of law.

Pinochet certainly retains a sharp clarity about the past. During the court ordered exams Pinochet told a neurologist who had been exiled during the dictatorship, "you are not like your two aunts [supporters of the military regime], who were very pretty and nice."

The presiding judge in the case, Juan Guzman Tapia, is under heavy pressure to free Pinochet. In an interview with Le Monde early this month he spoke of "threats" and "pressures from diverse sectors, including members of the government." The highest- ranking minister of the present government of Socialist president Ricardo Lagos has called for a health exemption and stated that Pinochet "will not be sent to prison." Fearing a military backlash and the rancor of pro-Pinochet elites, the government would like the entire process to end.

Judge Guzman however is standing firm, and recent events have strengthened his position.

As president, Pinochet issued an amnesty exempting military officials from crimes during the most intense period of repression. But Chilean judges ruled that the disappeared were "ongoing crimes" since their deaths cannot be ascertained.

Pinochet, for example, is being prosecuted in connection with the death of 19 people during the Caravan of Death, which summarily executed 72 people. But Pinochet can only be tried for the 19 victims whose bodies have not been located.

Last July, the military agreed to try to find the remains of the more than 1,100 people formally listed as "disappeared," and earlier this month released a list of 180.

If this was an effort to evade prosecution, it failed abysmally. The public was aghast as the military for the first time acknowledged its direct responsibility in disappearing and murdering opponents of the Pinochet regime, and at the macabre details in the report.

Some victims were "thrown in the ocean from helicopters," others were interred in "mine pits." Independent of the report, an officer involved in dumping people in the ocean declared "we split their stomachs open while they were alive to stop them from floating."

Public outrage grew even stronger as it became known that much of the information provided in the report is false.

Carmen Hertz, whose husband is among the disappeared, found the report claiming her husband was dumped in the ocean one day after he was detained, but several witnesses reported seeing him alive several days later.

The Lagos government has demanded that the military clarify the errors and called for legislation to punish those who do not provide information. For the first time since Pinochet left office in 1990, public antipathy towards the military is so strong there is no talk of military intervention to prevent prosecution of officers.

Ever since Pinochet was detained in London in October 1998, it has been the courts --along with human rights advocates --that have persevered in bringing him to justice, while civilian politicians of virtually all stripes have tried to set him free.

In Spain the conservative government attempted to prevent the National Court from extraditing Pinochet from London to stand trial in Madrid. In Britain, the Labour government freed Pinochet for "health reasons."

When he returned to Chile, the government first held that Chilean courts should be free from outside pressures -- but within months government ministers began arguing publicly that Pinochet should not be imprisoned for his crimes. Chile is still governed, under the Pinochet-imposed constitution, in part by the military, and this is also unchanged -- though recent public outrage over the military's behavior have created political space for some changes.

The two major right wing parties are trying to distance themselves from Pinochet -- and some on the left are pointing out that many civilian officials were also involved, at the very least in covering up the network of state sponsored terror.

In the courts, more than 200 cases have been filed against Pinochet. More than 25 military officers have been charged and many more indictments are expected.

Pinochet may escape trial and imprisonment due to his health. But even if his case is dropped tomorrow, determined human rights attorneys and judges have fundamentally transformed Chile.