RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Menem Says He Will Not Veto Repeal of Amnesty

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 26 1998 (IPS) - Argentine President Carlos Menem said Thursday that he would not veto the decision by Congress to repeal the two amnesty laws which let 1,100 members of the military implicated in human rights abuses off the hook in 1987.

The Senate, which had planned to take up the matter next week, took the country by surprise Wednesday night by ratifying, in a four-hour session, the draft law approved Tuesday by the Chamber of Deputies to repeal the laws of “due obedience” and “punto final”.

The amnesty laws of “due obedience” and “punto final” were enacted in 1987 to end the legal prosecution of members of the military who committed human rights violations during the 1976-83 dictatorship. Some, like former captain Alfredo Astiz, were being tried on charges of abduction, torture and murder at the time the two laws were passed.

The government of Raul Alfonsin (1983-89) had taken the leaders of the de facto regime to court, and the former armed forces commanders were in prison when the amnesty was issued.

A sector of the army staged two uprisings against the Alfonsin administration, rebelling against the continuing trials. In 1989 Menem, Alfonsin’s successor, pardoned the heads of the uprisings as well as the former leaders of the dictatorship.

Human rights groups, which protested the government’s arguments of the need for reconciliation, were confident that at least the amnesty laws could be overturned.

Last January, a group of opposition legislators with the support of human rights organisations sought full annulment of the two amnesty laws, to permit a reopening of the cases against military subordinates like Astiz, which had been interrupted 11 years ago.

At that time, Menem warned that he would veto the repeal if it were ratified by Congress.

But according to analysts and human rights activists, the law that was finally approved Wednesday night was merely a “symbolic” repeal of the laws, without retroactive effects for those who already benefited from the amnesty.

Human rights groups, which had pushed for full annulment, expressed their dissatisfaction with the repeal.

Hebe de Bonafini, the president of one of the two branches of the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo – a group of women demanding to know the truth about their “disappeared” sons and daughters – termed the non-retroactive repeal “a disgrace.”

“We will never follow the politicians who passed ‘due obedience’ and ‘punto final’. We will not whitewash them,” she added.

Nevertheless, other activists said they hoped the new law would allow at least some cases to be reopened.

Estela Carlotto, the president of the Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo – women seeking their grandchildren who were born in captivity and often illegally adopted – called the repeal “a positive step. It is not what we had hoped for. We had worked hard for annulment of the laws. But we know this is a very important step.”

According to official figures, 10,000 people were “disappeared” by Argentina’s last de facto regime. But human rights groups put the figure much higher, at 30,000.