ARGENTINA: Astiz Appears in Court as Crowds Howl Outside

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 19 1998 (IPS) - Retired Argentine navy officer Alfredo Astiz – symbol of the illegal repression during the dictatorship – appeared in the civil court Monday following statements made to the press vindicating the military regime.

For the families of the disappeared have vowed to persue their case until they see Astiz behind bars, despite the amnesty granted to the human rights violators of the military dictatorship.

Physically protected by police guards – but harangued by insults from the demonstrators behind the security barriers – Astiz appeared before the Federal Chamber Monday, to be interrogated on the whereabouts of journalist and writer Rodolfo Walsh, who disappeared in 1977.

Astiz himself brought about the summons by admitting to the press on January 13 the Walsh affair had been “one of the shitty operations” he was not involved in – meaning the abduction of the journalist who headed a secret news agency during the first months of the dictatorship.

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo – who appeared at the court to present a denunciation on the kidnapping of three of their members in 1977 in an operation Astiz was involved in – fought with the police to enter the building, unfolded a banner reading “murderer, son of a bitch” and marched around the building after presenting their plea.

The three Mothers were abducted along with the two French nuns after Astiz infiltrated their organisation.

Astiz was condemned to life imprisonment in France for the kidnapping of the nuns, and now cannot leave the Argentina without being arrested by Interpol, but within the country he was freed from all legal action by the ‘full stop’ and ‘due obedience’ amnesty laws.

Meanwhile, the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who also appeared to throw insults at Astiz, warned they had evidence which could send him to prison.

For the theft and disappearance of children was not included in the amnesties.

These amnesty laws were approved in 1987, but this month, shortly before Astiz made his declarations to Argentine weekly ‘Tres Puntos,’ a group of legislators had called for them to be repealed.

And Astiz’s statements further convinced the promoters of the bill on the need for some kind of punishment for the military offenders.

Legal experts are divided between those who believe the pardon granted to more than 1,000 members of the military cannot be taken away, and those who believe the laws are null and void as they contravene an article of the Constitution.

Those in favour of repeal said the main obstacles to reopening the cases of human rights violations are the political will and the consensus of the population rather than legal issues.

However, the groups of relatives – who never stopped calling for the guilty to be punished – made the most of Astiz’s declarations, asking Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, heading a court case in Madrid on the disappearance of Spanish citizens in Argentina, to summons Astiz to testify.

Another group of Mothers presented a demand for an apology for the crime of the attack on democracy and illicit association, while a lawyer for the League of the Rights of Man has presented a complaint on similar charges, and the judges investigating the death of another journalist, in 1995, are also considering summonsing on the former captain.

Walsh’s relavtives, who know the military have been granted immunity, had lodged a complaint with the Federal Chamber last September “to be told the truth” about what happened to the writer, and, if he had been murdered, to be told the whereabouts of his remains.

Astiz’s mention of Walsh in his first interview, meant Chamber immediately ordered he testify to find out the extent of his knowledge. Each paragraph of his interview will now have to be fully explained to various judges.

In one of his answers, the retired frigate captain admitted new born babies had been kidnapped. This declaration, which admitted the existence of the crime, will be taken by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo as a basis for seeking more information on the children who disappeared or who were adopted illegally.

The Walsh proceedings will also summons Admiral Eduardo Massera, member of the first military ‘junta’ (governing body) of the dictatorship, who was found guilty of serious human rights violations and pardoned by President Carlos Menem in 1990 along with the other military leaders.

Astiz’s cross examination Monday forms part of an avalanche of complaints after he declared the navy had trained him to destroy, kill and plant bombs, that he was unrepentent about all that had happened, that he would have tortured had the navy asked him and, finally, that he was the person best prepared to kill a politician or journalist in the country.

Astiz was put under 60 days’ house arrest by the navy following his unauthorised public declarations and he may be stripped of his rank, but up until now he has hardly spent any time in a place of detention.

Last weekend he appeared before a military tribunal answering accusations of sedition. Astiz had stated military companions of his came to him every day asking for him to lead an uprising, which he refused to do.

Legislators and political analysts suspect the Astiz interview with ‘Tres Puntos’ was a manoevre organised by Admiral Massera, who is at loggerheads with the current head of the navy.

However, Astiz – a man frequently insulted and abused in the streets – is currently a free man, has a military pension and a house within the naval headquarters. If he is stripped of his rank he will loose all of this.

ARGENTINA: Astiz Appears in Court as Crowds Howl Outside

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 19 1998 (IPS) - Retired Argentine navy officer Alfredo Astiz – symbol of the illegal repression during the dictatorship – appeared in the civil court Monday following statements made to the press vindicating the military regime.
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