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REPORTS: ARGENTINA |
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Ex-Military
Leaders Have Fearful Eye on Spain
Viviana
Alonso
BUENOS AIRES, (IPS) - The most
notorious military officials of
Argentina's last dictatorship
(1976-1983) are prisoners of fear as
they await decisions on their
extradition to Spain for trial on
charges of human rights crimes, a real
possibility due to the annulment
Friday of a decree that barred such
extraditions.
Alfredo Astiz, known as the ”angel
of death”, Antonio Pernías, Antonio
Bussi (mayor-elect of the northern
city of Tucumán) are some of the
dictatorship-era officers who were
taken into custody on arrest orders
issued Thursday by an Argentine
federal judge in compliance with a
request from Spanish judge Baltasar
Garzón, via Interpol (international
police).
Already serving time for other human
rights crimes are former dictators
Jorge Videla and Emilio Massera,
former general Carlos Suárez Mason
and navy officer Jorge ”Tigre”
Acosta.
These men headed the Argentine
dictatorship and the armed forces
personnel who engaged in the so-called
”Dirty War” in which as many as
30,000 people were ”disappeared”
and several thousand others murdered.
The officials are on the list of 46
people sought by Spain's courts for
crimes of torture, genocide and
terrorism.
The extradition request can follow
normal procedures this time thanks to
the annulment signed Friday by
President Néstor Kirchner, reversing
Decree 1581 issued by his predecessor,
Fernando de la Rúa, that barred
extradition of Argentine military
officials to other countries to be
tried for human rights crimes
committed during the 1976-1983
dictatorship.
The government decision, which had
been announced several days ago, was
finalised one day after judge Rodolfo
Canicoba Corral ordered the arrest of
45 military officers and one civilian.
Just hours after the arrest list was
made public, one of the ”wanted
men”, former coast guard petty
officer Juan Antonio Azic attempted
suicide by shooting himself in the
mouth. He is in serious condition at
the Navy Hospital.
Azic had been identified and accused
of human rights crimes by Spanish
survivors of the Navy Mechanics School
(ESMA), a torture centre of the
Argentine dictatorship.
One of Azic's victims, Carlos
Lordkipanidse, recounted how the
officer had tortured him with
electrical shocks at ESMA, where he
was being held with his wife and their
20-day-old son. Azic threatened to
kill the baby if the parents did not
provide the information he wanted.
Human rights activist Estela Carlotto,
head of the Association of
Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo,
said the annulment of the decree is an
important step towards justice, ”but
we must see what actions are taken.”
Government sources said they would
rather that these crimes be tried by
Argentine courts, which would require
the Supreme Court of Justice to
declare unconstitutional what are
known as the ”full stop” and
”due obedience” laws, enacted by
the Raúl Alfonsín government
(1983-1989), effectively granting
amnesty to most of the military
involved in the dictatorship.
In reaction to the repeal of Decree
1581, Justice Minister Gustavo Beliz
said that it puts an end to
legislation that ”conferred special
treatment” upon military officers
and which implied ”interference by
the executive branch in the
judiciary's activities.”
But human rights organisations are
leery, saying that the restitution of
powers to the Argentine judiciary is
no guarantee that the dictatorship-era
officers will finally be brought to
justice.
Upon his return from a two-day state
visit to the United States, Kirchner
decided to repeal Decree 1581, paving
the way for judge Canicoba Corral's
order to go beyond mere arrest to
extradition of the 46 sought for trial
in Spain.
>From now on, instead of being
rejected outright, extradition
requests from other countries
presented to the Foreign Ministry will
be passed on to the appropriate
judicial bodies to be considered on a
case-by-case basis.
But Canicoba Corral pointed out that
according to the law on extraditions,
”In the end it is the executive
branch that decides, because the law
gives the government the authority to
determine whether or not it will hand
over the military officers.”
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