A-Infos (en) Argentina: Historic Tour of Illegal Detention Centre

[Tom Burghardt <tburghardt@igc.apc.org>]

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     ARGENTINA: HISTORIC TOUR OF ILLEGAL DETENTION CENTRE
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     Source: PeaceNet newsdesk in cdp:ips.english
     14 February 1998
 
                              * * *
 
     By Marcela Valente
 
     BUENOS AIRES, Feb 11 (IPS) - Judges, lawmakers, military
officers, relatives of 'disappeared' victims and survivors of
Argentina's 1976-83 dictatorship made the first joint inspection
Wednesday of the site that operated as the largest illegal
detention centre in that period.
 
     ''I'm doing this for my sons and my husband,'' Laura
Bonaparte said through tears as she entered the Navy School of
Mechanics (ESMA), where she suspects her husband, three sons and
three daughters-in-law were tortured and 'disappeared' in 1977.
The installations allegedly held a total of more than 4,000
detainees during the de facto military regime.
 
     The historic tour took place after residents living nearby
reported that furniture and machines had been removed from ESMA
under cover of night, in spite of a court order suspending the
presidential decree that ordered the demolition of the building
and the construction of a park and a monument to peace.
 
     The decree, issued by President Carlos Menem and signed in
January, triggered an outcry from human rights groups, which
argued that the building should be left standing and open to the
public as a symbol of state terrorism and a reminder for future
generations that the past must not be repeated.
 
     Nevertheless, the president went ahead with the project of
transferring ESMA to a city in the province of Buenos Aires.
 
     In response, two relatives of 'disappeared' victims went to
court to get a stay of action.
 
     Not only did the federal court find that the families of
'disappeared' victims had valid reasons to keep the building from
being torn down, but it urged the preservation of the
installations in case evidence remained that could shed light on
the final fate of the victims.
 
     The 'Madres de la Plaza de Mayo', a group of mothers seeking
their 'disappeared' sons and daughters, contend that ESMA
installations contain secret graves.
 
     Although amnesty laws and presidential pardons have kept
army troops and officers implicated in the ''dirty war'' out of
prison today, families have not stopped demanding the truth on
the whereabouts of their loved ones. The 'Abuelas de la Plaza de
Mayo' still entertain hopes of recuperating their grandchildren,
who were born in captivity or taken away as small children.
 
     According to human rights groups, around 30,000 people were
'disappeared' during the dictatorship.
 
     Human rights activists were dealt a severe blow last Friday
when the Defence Ministry appealed the judicial decision to block
the decree, arguing that ''it was not completely clear'' that
victims had been abducted, tortured and 'disappeared' in ESMA -
even though that had been proven in trials in the late 1980s in
which the dictatorship's military commanders - later pardoned -
were found guilty.
 
     Protests by human rights groups and opposition lawmakers
against the Defence Ministry's statement forced Minister Jorge
Dominguez to apologise this week and request the resignation of
the legal advisers who drafted the communique.
 
     In spite of denials by Menem himself that objects had been
secretly removed from ESMA, the courts heard the complaints
brought by neighbours Wednesday, and sent two judges to make an
on-site inspection. Two parliamentarians and relatives of
'disappeared' victims were invited to accompany the judges.
 
     Survivors of the clandestine concentration camp, who during
the 1980s trials of the former military commanders helped
reconstruct part of the grisly events that took place in ESMA,
also accompanied the group.
 
     Further testimony on what occurred there was provided by
former navy captain Adolfo Scilingo, who worked in ESMA during
the de facto regime and confessed in 1995 that many detainees
were thrown alive but drugged into the sea from navy aircraft.
 
     Copyright 1998 InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS). All
     rights reserved. Worldwide distribution via the APC
     networks.
 
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