Wed Apr 24,11:06 AM ET
By Andrew Cawthorne

LONDON (Reuters) - Hounded by British protesters and pursued by a Spanish judge, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said on Wednesday he would not dodge questioning over knowledge of past crimes by South American dictatorships.


But Kissinger -- whose visit to London drew about 200 anti-capitalist protesters calling him a "war criminal" and scuffling with police -- argued the U.S. government should be the first port of call for inquiries over its past behavior.

"It is quite possible that mistakes were made," Kissinger told a business conference in London of his time in government, as demonstrators chanted "shame" and held a mock trial of him on the pavement outside.

"The issue is whether, 30 years after the event, the courts are the appropriate means by which determination is made. If it is left to the individual judgement of individual judges who in turn are given so-called information from interest groups, the very concept of universal jurisdiction will be undermined."

German-born Kissinger, who fled Nazi rule to the United States, served as President Richard Nixon's National Security Adviser from 1969 to 1973 and as Secretary of State between 1973 and 1977 under Nixon and his successor Gerald Ford.

A Spanish judge has asked international police Interpol to question him over what he knew about "Operation Condor," a plan by military regimes in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay to persecute opponents during the 1970s and 1980s.

WASHINGTON WOULD RESPOND FIRST

Kissinger said Washington would respond before him.

"It is not a refusal on my part to answer questions, it is to permit the United States government to collect the information which it has and to respond," he said after a speech to the Institute of Directors conference.

"The United States government has taken the position that it will handle questions having to do with the operations of the United States government, and then if I or anyone else whose view is sought has anything to add...that will be dealt with."

Outside London's Royal Albert Hall demonstrators from anti-capitalist and left-wing groups mocked a huge effigy of Kissinger and held photographs of people who disappeared during the rule of Chile's ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet (news - web sites).

"He is the world's biggest war criminal," Guy Taylor of the Globalize Resistance group told Reuters. Two protestors were arrested, and others dragged away by police as they tried to block traffic and prevent delegates from entering.

The demonstrators said as well as South America, Kissinger bore responsibility for U.S. involvement in other international "crimes" at the time he was in government including carpet-bombing in Cambodia and prolonging the Vietnam War.

When asked about the calls for him to testify, Kissinger said he welcomed in principle the use of law to protect human rights but argued that for this to work it should be "very carefully defined."

During his speech Kissinger, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for negotiating an end to the Vietnam War, urged caution on the West's mooted military moves against Iraq.