our (such) nice grandpas...

Left: (such a) Nice Grandpa Pieter Willem (P.W.) Botha, 90
Right: (such a) Nice Grandpa Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, 90

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I don't know if you have a grandpa. I never met either of mine, so I can write in all honesty that I really miss having had a grandpa. My paternal grandpa was arrested on March 24, 1944, by the German occupying forces in Athens and deported to Auschwitz, where he died in the gas chambers. I remember his framed black-and-white photo in my father's office; I know I owe him alot, not least my name (I was named after him).

My maternal grandpa died of pneumonia in his early 30s. My maternal grandma re-married and moved to Sâo Paulo, Brasil, in the 1950s. My step-grandpa died at their apartment on the Avenida Alameda Santos in Sâo Paulo in the late 60s. And thus in my youth I always longed for a grandpa figure. Even as a grown-up young private banker in the 1980s, I tended to gravitate towards clients who were grandpa figures; John Enepekides and Ramón Cifuentes (both long departed) come to mind.

Which makes me a partial party to a question I was recently asked:

Does advanced age excuse crimes against humanity?

It is a question that comes to mind this week when P W Botha, the apartheid-era president who led South Africa through its worst racial violence and deepest international isolation, died this past Tuesday in Cape Town, age 90. Nicknamed the ''Old Crocodile'' for his feared temper and often ruthless manner, grandpa P. W. served as head of the white racist government from 1978 to 1989. Throughout his leadership, he resisted mounting pressure to free South Africa's most famous political prisoner. Nelson Mandela was released by Botha's successor, F.W. de Klerk in 1990. Botha tenaciously defended the framework of apartheid, sharply restricting the activities of black political organizations and detaining more than 30,000 people. In December 1997, Botha stubbornly resisted appearing before a panel investigating apartheid-era crimes. He risked criminal penalties by repeatedly defying subpoenas from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to testify about the State Security Council that he headed. The council was believed to have sanctioned the killing and torture of anti-apartheid activists, and the panel wanted to know what Botha's involvement was.

Born Jan. 12, 1916, the son of a farmer in the rural Orange Free State province, Botha never served in the military or graduated from college. He quit university in 1935 to become a National Party organizer. During World War II, Botha joined the Ossewabrandwag (Ox Wagon Fire Guard), a group that was sympathetic to the Nazis and opposed South Africa's participation on the Allied side. Botha won election to Parliament in 1948, the year the National Party came to power and began codifying apartheid legislation. He joined the Cabinet in 1961 and became defense minister in 1966. As head of the white-minority government in 1978, Botha repeatedly stressed the paramount importance of national security. He charged that the anti-apartheid struggle was a ''total onslaught'' on South Africa instigated by communist forces. During a series of gradual race reforms, he told white South Africans they must ''adapt or die.'' A new constitution in 1983 gave Asians and mixed-race people a limited voice in government, but continued to exclude blacks. The new law also drastically increased Botha's powers, changing his title from prime minister to president. He declared a national emergency in 1986 after widespread violence erupted in black areas, where anger focused on the new constitution. State security forces brutally quelled the opposition, and one of his former lieutenants -- police minister Adriaan Vlok -- told the Truth Commission that Botha had personally congratulated Vlok for successfully bombing a building thought to harbor anti-apartheid activists and weapons.

Such a nice grandpa he was, P. W. Botha. May he rest in peace. I will miss him dearly. NOT.

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Grandpa Augusto's birthday is coming up soon. He will turn 91 on November 25 and I have been very busy looking for a birthday gift for him. Grandpa Augusto was on the news this past week too. On Tuesday 31 October (same day that Grandpa P.W. passed away), Grandpa Augusto was placed under house arrest, charged with the torture of 23 people, as well as the kidnapping of 34 and one homicide, which were carried out at a secret government detention center after grandpa came to power in his 1973 military coup. It is the first time Pinochet faces prosecution for torture, although he is already being prosecuted on kidnapping charges in connection with the "disappearance" of 119 people in 1975. Until Tuesday, Pinochet had never been charged with torture, which was a systematic practice throughout his rule.

This is a milestone in the struggle for justice in Chile, Human Rights Watch said. The government-appointed National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture reported in 2004 that more than 18,000 people were tortured during the four months after the September 1973 coup, and another 5,266 people from January 1974 until August 1977. "This is an important moment for the thousands of victims of torture in Chile," said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "The man who ran the régime that brutalised them is finally being made to answer for these crimes."

Chilean courts have already convicted 109 military and police officials for crimes including "disappearances," extrajudicial executions and torture committed during the military government. Thirty-five former generals of the army, police and air force have been sentenced or are facing trial for human rights abuses. The Chilean Supreme Court ordered that previous charges against Pinochet be dropped on the grounds that he was mentally unfit to stand trial. However, in October 2005, a court-appointed panel of psychiatrists found that Pinochet was lucid and able to understand and answer questions.

The new charges against Pinochet involve abuses that occurred at the Villa Grimaldi, a secret detention center run by the Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA), where victims were held following the 1973 coup. The evidence against Pinochet includes the testimony of Ricardo Lawrence, a former DINA agent who said that he escorted Pinochet to interrogate Victor Díaz, a former top official of the Chilean Communist Party who was held in 1976 at Villa Grimaldi. Lawrence said he overheard the interview, which took place in a military base in Santiago. Díaz subsequently "disappeared."

The investigating judge, Alejandro Solis, also cited the testimony of the DINA's director, Manuel Contreras, now serving a prison sentence for kidnapping, in which he said that he had reported to Pinochet on a daily basis.

Such a nice grandpa he is, Don Augusto. Happy Birthday to him and Happy Many Returns. NOT.