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<h1><font size=4><b>Landmark Human Rights Case in Argentina Puts Torture
on Trial</b></font></h1><font size=3>January 08, 2010 <br><br>
By <b>Marie Trigona</b> <br>
Source: Americas IRC <br><br>
Argentine courts have launched an investigation into crimes committed at
the ESMA Navy Mechanics School during the nation's military dictatorship.
The landmark human rights trial is one of the most far-reaching attempts
to bring crimes of Latin America's bloody past to justice.<br><br>
For more than three decades, survivors and their families awaited the
trial that finally began on Dec. 11, 2009. During Argentina's 1976-1983
dictatorship, the ESMA Navy Mechanics School served as a clandestine
detention center, used to torture and disappear thousands of people. Now
17 former ESMA officers face charges of human rights abuses, torture, and
murder.<br><br>
The ESMA trial was scheduled to begin in November but was postponed at
the request of the defense. Those on trial include Alfredo Astiz, Jorge
Acosta, Ricardo Cavallo, and Adolfo Dondacited by human rights groups as
among the most brutal and sinister repressors in the Argentine security
forces. In total, 13 marines, two police, one coast guard, and one army
official are on trial.<br><br>
More than 200 witnesses will testify in the historic trial. Groups have
stressed the need for witness protection following a wave of threats and
the disappearance of a key witness, Jorge Julio Lopez, three years ago.
Even President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who has supported the
human rights trial, has received threats. While traveling in her
presidential helicopter, the helicopter's transit radio signal was
intercepted at almost exactly the same moment as the ESMA trial opened.
Anonymous voices were broadcast saying the words "kill her,"
followed by the military hymn that was played when Jorge Rafael Videla
took power in the March 24, 1976 military coup. Interior Minister Anibal
Fernandez says the threats could be "closely linked" to the
ESMA trial.<br><br>
<b>ESMA, Symbol of State Terrorism<br><br>
</b>During Argentina's 1976-1983 military dictatorship, more than 30,000
people were forcefully disappeared. Kidnapped by commando groups in the
middle of the night, they were taken to clandestine detention centers.
The largest and most notorious torture center, the ESMA Navy Mechanics
School in Buenos Aires, still stands today, but as a museum to remind the
nation of the terror of the coup regimes.<br><br>
Victor Basterra is among the "lucky" ones who survived the
torture at ESMA, where he was held from 1979-1983. As he walks through
the basement of the ESMA Officers' Quarters, Basterra recalls the place
where he and detainees underwent unimaginable terror. He points out a
small room. "This area was called the '<i>huevera</i>' or 'egg cup'
because the walls were lined with egg cartons to drown out
screams."<br><br>
Naval officers, along with other police and military groups, devised a
complex system for the forced disappearance of individuals using the ESMA
facilities. Most of the prisoners were held at the Officers' Quarters,
where high-ranking officials lived while women and men were tortured in
the basement and attic.<br><br>
"There were different teams of torturers. The police, coast guard,
naval guard, secret service, and the penitentiary service all had torture
teams. They rotated," said Basterra. "They were always active,
especially when they had a prisoner who had information. They would
torture the person for days. On one occasion they tortured me for two
days without stopping. They would constantly change posts, because the
torturers would get tired."<br><br>
Torture survivors from the ESMA provided much of the information on what
is known about how the ESMA operated. Basterra, who will testify in the
trial, took photos of officers and prisoners during his detention at the
ESMA, risking his life to smuggle them out to later provide evidence for
the trials. The photos were used in the first Junta Trial in
1985.<br><br>
This trial includes only a handful of the military involved in the
complex lexicon of torture inside the ESMA. More than 5,000 people were
detained and disappeared at the ESMA Navy Mechanics School. Hundreds of
officers, cadets, and high-ranking officials worked at what was
comparable to a concentration camp.<br><br>
Juan De Wandelaer, from the Peace and Justice Service (SERPAJ), says the
ESMA trial is a landmark case for Argentina. "The Argentine Navy has
never faced trial. The ESMA is a symbolic building and carries a lot of
weight for Argentines. Thousands of people were disappeared from the
ESMA, most of whom were thrown from planes into the sea after being
drugged," says De Wandelaer.<br><br>
"This trial will bring to light the evidence showing how the ESMA
functioned, because not only navy and military officers are facing trial,
but also police and civilians. In this aspect, the trial is important
because it will further dismantle the wall of impunity."<br><br>
<b>Landmark Trial<br><br>
</b>Many of the crimes that the trial will examine were previously held
up in court in the mid 80s. The perpetrators enjoyed freedom for the past
20 years thanks to the Due Obedience and Full Stop laws passed in the
early 90s, which prevented any successful prosecution of ex-military
leaders for human rights crimes by the courts.<br><br>
Appropriately named "the blonde angel of death," Astiz was 22
when he infiltrated the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo posing as the brother of
one of the disappeared. He marked his victims with a kiss outside the
Santa Cruz Church. On Dec. 8, 1977 the founders of Mothers of Plaza de
Mayo, Esther Careaga and Maria Eugenia Ponce, were kidnapped from the
Santa Cruz Church along with 8 others. Azucena Villaflor, another
founding mother, was kidnapped outside her home just days later. The
three women were taken to the ESMA, and later dropped into the sea from
death flights. The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team identified their
bodies in 2005. Astiz was tried in Argentina in 1985 but the amnesty laws
halted the proceedings. He has since been sentenced to life in prison by
a French court in connection with the disappearance of French nuns,
Léonie Duquet and Alice Domon.<br><br>
In the courtroom, Astiz wore jeans, a navy blue sweater, and a sinister
smile. During the opening allegations, which included over 80 accusations
of forced disappearances, torture, and rape, the accused sat under the
scrutiny of dozens of media outlets who were filming and taking photos.
After seven hours of accusations, as the former officers were being
handcuffed to be transported to their jail cells, rights activists in the
courtroom chanted: "Like the Nazis, you'll get it too." Astiz
looked at the activists and with a smile displayed the book he opted to
read during the trial<i>Return to Kill</i> (<i>Volver a Matar</i>) by
Juan Bautista Yofre, ex-chief of the nation's State Intelligence Agency.
Rights advocates responded, "30,000 disappearedpresent! Now and
Forever!"<br><br>
Outside the courtroom, survivors and relatives reiterated the need to
keep the historic memory alive and seek the truth. "They tried to
deny us justice for so many years," said Enrique Fukman, a torture
survivor detained at the ESMA. Fukman spoke to hundreds of supporters at
the trial opening, expressing his relief that the trial has begun.
Another survivor of the ESMA, Graciela Daleo, said that the military
officials who decided who would live and who would die are now vulnerable
in the justice system. "Those of us who survived detention, when
returning to the ESMA for the first time collectively understood the
power of those buildings, because those buildings sheltered the people
who owned life and death. Now they are the ones being photographed and
handcuffed."<br><br>
<b>Slow but Overdue Justice</b> <br><br>
Since the Supreme Court overturned amnesty laws barring courts from
trying officers involved in rights abuses during the dictatorship, 26
trials have begun and 58 former military and police officers have been
sentenced. Carolina Varsky, human rights lawyer and director of the
Center for Legal Studies (CELS), says that while justice has been slow,
lawyers must follow strict procedures to ensure that the sentences served
will be lengthy. "Argentina has progressed in the trials, using its
own judicial system and not an international court. While we are proud
that we can carry out justice in our own country, I wish the trials were
faster. Because relatives of victims are dying; the ones who repressed us
are dying. The number of accused who have not testified because they are
declared incompetent or who have died before going to trial is quite
high."<br><br>
CELS is a human rights organization formed in 1979. The push by CELS for
the Trials for Truth in the 90s, when justice was not possible under the
amnesty laws, led to the Supreme Court's decision in 2003 to overturn the
laws. "We must play by the rules of the courts. The difficulty is
presenting evidence to the courts 33 years after the actual events took
place, and after the State destroyed much of the evidence, burning papers
that could incriminate the military," says Varsky. <br><br>
The persistent work of survivors, relatives, and human rights advocates
over the past three decades has resulted in the collection of
overwhelming evidence, and more military personnel will face trial in the
coming year. The proceedings in the ESMA trial are expected to conclude
in six to eight months. "These are not the trials that we want, but
they are the trials that we have," said Daleo, hoping that human
rights groups can continue to make strides against impunity for crimes
against humanity.<br><br>
Human rights continue to be an open wound for much of Latin America,
especially the countries that survived brutal military dictatorships in
the 70s and 80s, such as Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and
Uruguay. Patrick Rice, a former Irish priest detained by a commando group
in a Buenos Aires shanty town in 1976, said that while many countries
have made progress in seeking justice for crimes committed by military
juntas, some countries still have impunity laws protecting the military.
"We have an ambiguous situation in Latin America regarding human
rights, with a coup in Honduras and U.S. military bases in Colombia.
There have been a number of progressive governments in Chile, Brazil, and
Bolivia that have made strides in the broad sense of human rights.
Argentina is taking a clear lead on human rights, with its trials on
crimes committed during the past. This is very hopeful for Latin
America."<br><br>
The ESMA trial is a welcome step toward justice, however much remains to
be known about the whereabouts of 30,000 people who were forcefully
disappeared. Argentina's military continues to deny human right lawyers'
requests for the release of archives and top-secret information about the
crimes the military coup committed. The disappearance of the witness
Julio Lopez in 2006 has reignited painful memories of selective
repression with impunity and fears about the possibility of violent
repercussions against survivors and witnesses participating in human
rights trials.<br><br>
Despite hard evidence concluding that thousands of officers were involved
in the crimes against humanity and disappearances, only 280 former
officers are facing trial, and many of those charged with crimes are
under house arrest rather than awaiting trial in jail. Without the
decades of dedication from survivors, relatives of victims, and human
rights advocates, convicted assassins like Alfredo Astiz might never have
been tried in the country where they committed the crimes. While there is
hope for Latin America, even in Argentina the human rights trials have
limited scope in the fight against impunity.<br><br>
<i>Marie Trigona is a journalist based in Argentina and writes regularly
for the Americas Program
(<a href="http://www.americaspolicy.org/">www.americaspolicy.org</a>).
She can be reached at mtrigona(a)msn.com<br>
<hr>
</i>From: Z Net - The Spirit Of Resistance Lives <br>
URL:
<a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/23575">
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/23575</a> <br><br>
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