ARGENTINA: Human Rights Groups Find Their Voice Again

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 15 1998 (IPS) - Human rights groups in Argentina have hit the headlines again this year with a renewed campaign calling for justice over the “disappearances” of thousands of people during the era of military dictatorships.

Despite apparent past impotence, these groups have “never stopped working,” Nobel peace prizewinner, Adolfo Perez Esquivel told IPS.

However, he admitted that this year – which sees the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – the battle against impunity has taken on a special impetus for the building of democracy throughout the region.

Perez Esquivel considered the resurgence of the human rights defence groups in Argentina was taking place in a context where the political leaders, both of the ruling party and opposition, are “slaves to their own fears” of attacking the impunity of the military repressors.

The human rights groups formed as far back as 1976 in the first months of the dictatorship, when the relatives of people abducted first met to try and discover the whereabouts of their loved ones. Soon several associations of relatives, detained and disappeared emerged, along with groups of a more general scope.

In the first two years of democracy, which was recovered in 1983, the human rights leaders who had been operating almost in secret, came out into the open.

They were instrumental in providing evidence against former military officers who were condemned by the justice system for their serious violations of human rights. But the amnesty laws for the rank and file and, later the pardoning of former officers, dealt a heavy defeat to the relatives and survivors. Even though they did not stop meeting and working, their claims lost attention in a society concerned with new issues like inflation and unemployment.

Now, impunity is back as a top priority. A survey in January by the Ricardo Rouvier company showed nearly 80 percent of Argentineans favoured repealing the amnesty laws which benefitted more than a thousand members of the armed forces who took part in the clandestine repression.

However, a bill to ovberturn these laws failed in Parliament earlier this month, due to disagreements between the ruling party and the opposition bloc, earning the scorn of the human rights groups who backed the motion.

The human rights issue came back to the fore in January, just as a group of MPs called for the repealing of the laws approved more than 10 years ago, unleashing a wave of reaction making the dead and disappeared front page news again.

In response, President Carlos Menem announced he would order the demolition of the Navy Mechanics School, which operated as the main clandestine detention centre, with more than 4,000 prisoners, in order to use the site for a monument to the peace process and national unity.

This proposal was rejected outright by the human rights groups, which lodged an appeal.

This week, for the first time, two relatives of the disappeared visited the naval centre along with members of parliament and legal authorities, and were horrified to find the plaques of honour related to the anti-guerrilla action are still hanging on the walls.

Former naval captain Alfredo Astiz, symbol of the repression and impunity, recalled serious human rights violations, reaffirming that he would be the best person in the country to plan an attack on a politician or journalist.

Astiz is free in Argentina only as a result of the amnesty, but cannot leave the country as the Interpol have a warrant for his arrest in relation to the abduction and murder of two French nuns during the dictatorship.

Menem ordered he be stripped of his rank immediately, and he will now faces charges of attacking constitutional order and issuing threats.

Meanwhile, the military repressors are also standing trial in Spain, Sweden and Italy, for disappearances of foreign citizens. In Spain, Judge Baltazar Garzon gave the Swiss courts the names of around a hundred members of the Argentine military, to find out if they had … boxes in the country.

The Swiss Attorney General answered that six of the men on the list did have accounts here, asking the Argentine authorities to help them check the details of the account holders.

These six include Astiz, and his representative stated Friday he had an account opened by the Army to fund the intelligence operations carried out by the officer amongst the groups of exiles.

Similarly, it was confirmed Friday that the present governor of Tucuman, retired general Antonio Bussi, owns one of the other accounts, although he made no comment on the matter.

“I cannot predict the outcome of the investigation, but if the result is positive I will be happy to go before an Argentine judge,” he said, indirectly alluding to his previous refusal to appear before Garzon in Madrid.

The return of the human rights issue was more intense this year even than the wave of ‘mea culpas’ from military leaders two years ago, when Scilingo admitted the marines had thrown live prisoners into the sea.

On that occasion, army chief, general Martin Balza, admitted the repression had been excessive, and his lead was followed by the chief of the navy and air force, although they were less critical of their responsibility in the disappearance of at least 10,000 people.

This Thursday, Balza carried out a deeper self-criticism. He described the violation of human rights as “appalling” and even more so when accepted by the State.

He admitted there would have to be trials and no “macabre proceedings” should be undertaken, criticising the theft of children and the changing of their identities.

However, he complained there are still many members of the military who continue to suffer from “the stigma of censure,” unable to further their careers by promotion as they are on the lists of repressors even though they were not even in the army during the dictatorship.

On the other hand, said Balza, former guerrillas and former civil servants of the regime currently hold “leading public posts” in the government, the justice system and Congress.