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Argentine Judges Delay
Justice for Dirty War Criminals
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES (IPS) - Recent
convictions of those responsible for
torture and disappearances during the
1976-1983 military dictatorship in
Argentina have been praised by human
rights organisations. But for every case
that comes to trial there are many more
facing long delays, and the main hurdle,
they say, is the judicial branch itself.
A torrent of trials for crimes against
humanity committed under the
dictatorship was reactivated in the
second half of this decade, when amnesty
laws and pardons were struck down.
However, verdicts have been reached for
only 75 of the 1,422 accused so far; 68
were found guilty and sentenced, and the
rest were acquitted.
The verdict that has drawn the most
public attention is that of 82-year-old
former general Reynaldo Bignone,
appointed in 1982 as president of the
military junta for the last year of the
dictatorship. He was sentenced Tuesday
to 25 years in a common prison, for
torture and illegal detentions committed
at the Campo de Mayo army base in 1977
when he was commander of Military
Institutes.
"The judicial branch is mainly
responsible for the delays. There are
cases of complicity with the
dictatorship, because certain sectors
entrenched in federal power want to
guarantee impunity," lawyer Andrea
Pochak, deputy director of the Centre
for Legal and Social Studies (CELS),
told IPS.
CELS, a non-governmental organisation
that monitors prosecutions for human
rights violations, denounced "sabotage
by some members of the judicial branch"
in its March report. It also warned that
magistrates are delaying trial
procedures on the assumption that the
cases will be discontinued, because of
the death of the accused or other
reasons.
The warning coincides with a statement
this week by the United Nations Human
Rights Committee, based in New York,
which welcomed the trials for human
rights violations in Argentina, but
criticised the slow pace of
prosecutions, especially in some
provinces like Mendoza.
Pochak admitted the Human Rights
Committee was right. "Nowadays, Mendoza
is our main concern. Because of
complicity, some judges delay the
prosecutions and leave the trials in
limbo, waiting for the accused to die
(of old age) before justice can be
done," she complained.
The lawyer said there were other
difficulties, apart from complicity,
that hindered the efficient prosecution
of these cases.
"The federal jurisdiction is generally
slow, not only for these cases, and it
is not accustomed to trials of this
magnitude," she said.
Nor have criteria been agreed to combine
the trials, which would speed up the
process and allow the trials to be
completed in two or three years, rather
than the two decades that CELS fears
they will take.
In 2005 the Supreme Court declared the
"full stop" and "due obedience" laws
enacted in the late 1980s to be
unconstitutional, and in 2007 it
repealed the pardon granted in 1990 to
several of the dictatorship's top
commanders by then president Carlos
Menem (1989-1999).
The Supreme Court rulings, which
confirmed parliamentary repeal of these
laws during the government of president
Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), made it
possible to reopen the cases involving
forced disappearances. Human rights
organisations estimate the number of
disappeared to be 30,000, although the
official figure is less than half that.
The Public Prosecutor's Unit for
Coordinating and Monitoring Cases of
Human Rights Violations during the
Period of State Terrorism has long
maintained that no special laws are
needed to speed the trials, but better
"administration of justice".
One of the prosecutors in charge of the
unit, Eduardo Auat, told IPS that
combining trials "is permitted by the
criminal code". Rather than undermining
the rights of the accused, the reverse
is true, he said.
Combining cases prevents a succession of
trials of the same defendant from taking
place over an extended period. However,
the prosecutor admitted that not all
judges accept the arrangement, and said
some of them were unwilling to use these
procedures.
Trials relating to the same illegal
detention centre, or to the same accused
individual, could be grouped together
and dealt with in a single trial. Cases
brought on behalf of the same victims
could also be combined, in order to
avoid multiple appearances of witnesses
and survivors in different courts.
CELS points out that 71 percent of the
prosecutions are currently bogged down
at the investigation stage. "A few cases
are held up waiting for trials to be
combined, due to problems with
marshalling the legal resources of the
defendant, or difficulties finding
courtroom space," Pochak says.
At present, two major trials are being
held in the same courtroom in Buenos
Aires, with the chamber being shared
between the two benches.
On three days a week, hearings are being
held in the trial concerning the former
Naval School of Mechanics (ESMA), in
which 19 persons are accused of crimes
against 87 people who were illegally
detained there. The alleged victims are
only a few of the thousands of prisoners
who passed through this Buenos Aires
concentration camp, and 300 witnesses
have been called to testify in court.
On the remaining two working days, the
trial known as "ABO" (for the illegal
Atlético, Banco and Olimpo detention
centres) is being held in the same
courtroom. Fifteen people are accused of
committing crimes against 184 persons,
and 400 witnesses have been called on to
testify.
CELS says the slow pace of justice is
"exasperating". At this rate, the
prosecution of those enjoying impunity
"will never become consolidated", in
spite of the many institutional
bottlenecks that have been successfully
overcome in the past three decades, CELS
spokespersons said.
In this context, the conviction and
sentencing of Bignone and other former
army generals in charge of Campo de
Mayo, located in the north of Buenos
Aires, is "very positive" because it
"helps to strengthen democracy", Pochak
said.
Bignone's charge-sheet includes burning
records of the dictatorship, and issuing
an amnesty decree absolving the military
of their crimes. But he was not
sentenced on these counts. The court
convicted him for illegal raids,
robbery, torture and detentions in four
clandestine prisons under his command,
with an estimated 5,000 detainees, many
of whom were "disappeared" and have
never been found.
Former generals Santiago Riveros and
Fernando Verplaetsen and three other
ex-army officers were sentenced along
with the former dictator.
The Abuelas and Madres de Plaza de
Mayo-Linea Fundadora, a group of mothers
and grandmothers of "disappeared"
victims of the regime who campaign for
an end to impunity, welcomed the court's
decision that the sentences must be
served in a common prison, in contrast
to the house arrest or confinement in
military units enjoyed by other
dictatorship criminals, where there is a
high risk they may escape.
In fact, the CELS report estimates that
more than 40 people accused of crimes
against humanity have escaped from
justice at various times, some of them
while remanded in custody, and are at
large. |
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