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REPORTS: ARGENTINA |
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Justice
Catches Up to Military Involved in 1976
Massacre
Viviana
Alonso
BUENOS AIRES, (IPS) - Argentina's
judicial authorities have ordered the
arrest of 10 members of the military for
the 1976 torture and assassination of 22
political prisoners in the northern
province of Chaco, the year the
country's last dictatorship began.
The arrest warrant and the Defence
Ministry's decision to immediately carry
it out were applauded by local human
rights activists and organisations.
”What is happening in Chaco is
significant. Decisions like these must
be encouraged,” said Graciela
Rosenblum, head of the Argentine League
for the Rights of Man (LADH)
Rosenblum stressed the importance of the
so-called ”trials for truth”, which
the courts are conducting in several
provinces to clear up the events
surrounding the human rights violations
committed by the forces of the
dictatorship (1976-1983).
Those trials emerged out of the
government's 1999 recognition that the
right to truth is not subject to a
statute of limitations.
”As happened in this case, if events
that constitute crimes emerge from the
truth trials, they have to be remitted
to other judges, who then initiate the
corresponding criminal proceedings,”
said Rosenblum in a conversation with
IPS.
Carlos Skidelsky, the federal judge in
Resistencia, Chaco's capital, ordered
the arrest of the 10 officers, all now
retired. They are charged with
”aggravated homicide and forced
disappearance of persons” in relation
to what is known as the ”Margarita Belén
massacre”.
”I have the moral obligation to take
this action because what happened in
Margarita Belén remains an open wound.
There are many victims' families who
continue to suffer not only the loss of
their loved ones, but also because of
the methods that were used in murdering
these people,” said Skidelsky.
In addition to the 10 officials, Gen.
Ricardo Brinzoni stands accused, though
he does not face arrest. Brinzoni,
former commander of the Argentine army,
in 1976 held the rank of captain and
served as the secretary general of the
military in Chaco.
The general, who was named army chief by
former president Fernando de la Rúa
(1999-2001), testified in 2002 as a
witness in the trial investigating the
Margarita Belén massacre.
Last year, Brinzoni admitted in
statements to the press that the
assassination of the 22 political
prisoners was a ”concealed killing”,
but he said he did not learn of it until
”a long time afterwards.”
Brinzoni was among the three-quarters of
the top military brass who President Néstor
Kirchner removed from their posts
shortly after he took office on May 25.
Skidelsky is among the judges who have
declared unconstitutional the 1986 Full
Stop Law and the 1987 Due Obedience Law
that had ended the trials of military
personnel and police on charges of human
rights violations during the
dictatorship.
Skidelsky's decision to issue the arrest
warrants came in response to a petition
filed by the Centre for Legal and Social
Studies (CELS) and HIJOS, a group of
relatives of the victims, to declare the
two laws unconstitutional.
In relation to those laws and the future
of the case and the arrestees, Skidelsky
said he is optimistic because ”before
ordering the arrests I had declared the
unconstitutionality of the two laws,
which are the ones that prevented the
criminal proceedings for this type of
crime.”
Argentina's Supreme Court of Justice has
yet to issue a decision on the Full Stop
and Due Obedience laws, a ruling that
would be definitive for all related
cases.
The Defence Ministry conveyed the arrest
order to the General Staff of the army,
and the national gendarmerie has
received instructions to seek and arrest
the 10 military members implicated in
the case.
On Dec. 13, 1976, the accused, led by
Col. Jorge Larrategui, allegedly pulled
members of university and agricultural
organisations from the Resistencia
prison with the declared intention of
transferring them to the neighbouring
province of Formosa. The student and
agrarian groups were linked to the
leftist wing of the Justicialista (Peronist)
Party.
When they reached Margarita Belén, 50
km north of Resistencia, the soldiers
made the prisoners get out of the
vehicles.
What occurred next is what the judicial
authorities are investigating.
So far it is known that the prisoners
were tortured and shot, although the
military government of Chaco at the time
tried to cover up the incident, saying
the deaths occurred during a clash
between the government forces and
”subversive groups”.
During the dictatorship, there were
frequent invocations of alleged
”transfers” and ”clashes with
subversive groups” to disguise the
assassinations of political prisoners,
say human rights activists.
According to the details of the case, 17
of the 22 bodies found at the site were
identified. But the names of the
remaining five -- two women and three
men -- are not known.
On another front, the government awaits
the arrival of a new petition from judge
Baltasar Garzón, of Spain, who is
expected to repeat the request for
extradition of 48 former Argentine
military officials indicted for human
rights violations in this country
between 1976 and 1983.
Similar petitions from Garzón, which
included members of the dictatorship's
military juntas and armed forces chief
during that period, were rejected by the
governments of Carlos Menem (1989- 1999)
and Fernando de la Rúa (1999-2001).
The prosecutors in the cases opened in
Madrid against the military officials of
the Argentine dictatorship believe that
the Kirchner government will respond
favourably to a new extradition request.
But to accede to the extradition,
Kirchner would have to overturn a decree
signed by De la Rúa in 2001, shortly
before he resigned. The decree
establishes a general refusal to such
petitions, with the argument that local
courts should try the crimes committed
in Argentina.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court in Mexico
decided Jun. 10 to comply with Spain's
request to extradite former Argentine
military officer Ricardo Cavallo, who
judge Garzón aims to try for crimes of
genocide, torture, kidnapping and forced
disappearances committed in Argentina
during the dictatorship.
Cavallo, who had moved to Mexico, was
tracked down by Interpol (International
Police). He is the first Argentine
military official to be extradited from
another country for trial in a third on
charges of crimes committed during the
dictatorship.
The Foreign Ministry and Defence
Ministry have announced that they will
not intercede in the legal processes of
Mexico or Spain with respect to the
Cavallo case.
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