By Sovereign Hager
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-A series of investigations and trials are underway in a renewed attempt to confront the legacy of the 1976-1983 dictatorship. Fifteen policemen and officers are on trial before a three-judge panel for their roles in the “dirty war” deaths of over 30,000 people. DNA test are being used to determine the origin of children thought to have been stolen from “disappeared” parents.
Military and police defendants are charged with running clandestine torture centers known as the Athletic Club, the Bank, and Olimpo. The defendants are some of the dictatorship’s most notorious figures. They include the leader of the junta that governed Argentina after the 1976 coup and Reynaldo Bignone, Argentina’s last dictator.
Individuals charged with involvement in “Operation Condor” are expected to stand trial next year. “Operation Condor” was a cooperative effort between South American dictatorships in hunting down and killing leftists. The courts have requested declassified US cables that contain information about what the United States knew about Argentine military operations. The Argentine ambassador to Washington is petitioning the CIA and other agencies to open their files on Argentina.
Meanwhile, DNA tests are being used in the pursuit of justice for the estimated 500 children that were stolen from their leftist political prisoner parents and given away to regime supporters. The process has been difficult because many of the children do not know their origins or remain loyal to their adoptive parents. As a result, the Congress supported a bill that required the extraction of DNA from suspected stolen children, even if they did not want to know the results.
DNA testing is also being used to identify bone fragments found in graves across Argentina. Over 600 skeletons have been compared with samples supplied by relatives of disappeared leftists. There have been forty-two matches made and another 100 waiting confirmation.
Argentine prosecutors have convicted sixty defendants since 2005 for violations of human rights through the use of the ordinary penal law and the criminal courts. 627 former military officers, policemen, and officials were charged with a total of 325 cases open nationwide. The resurgence in investigations and trials comes after the Argentina Supreme Court withdrew amnesty laws, which were in effect through most of the ’80s and ’90s.
For more information, please see:
The Guardian-Argentina’s Authorities Order DNA Tests in Search for Stolen Babies of the Dirty War-30 December 2009
PressTV-Argentine “Dirty War” Defendants on Trial-28 December 2009
The Washington Post-Argentina Puts Officials on Trial Over the Abuses of the Dirty War-28 December 2009
