THE CHILE COMMITTEE ON SWEDISH TV
In October 1998, General Pinochet, the recently retired Chilean dictator was arrested in London for the many crimes which he had committed during his dictatorship.
When Swedish Television decided to make a documentary of the affair they interviewed Patricia Pizarro, a member of the Chile Solidarity Committee in Stirling. Rowland was there.
Not long after Patricia went to London to make an introductory documentary for Channel 4. Rowland was still in the thick of it. An evening of coaching with Patricia made sure that she would give a very good account of herself.
Channel 4 followed this up and Patricia was interviewed by John Snow. In the event, Patricia was able to summon up enough courage to say what she really thought of Pinochet. He was, she said, a murderer.
Sadly the initial euphoria on the part of the Chilean refugees in Britain eventually turned to despair as the British Government shamefully backed off after a series of ridiculous court cases of which the most famous were those involving the Law Lords.