NotiSur, 01/12/01 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit This issue is for personal use only, not for redistribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ L A T I N A M E R I C A D A T A B A S E NotiSur - Latin American Affairs ISSN 1060-4189 Volume 11, Number 1 January 12, 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 2001, Latin America Data Base (LADB), Latin American Institute, University of New Mexico Director: Rebecca Reynolds Bannister Editor: Patricia Hynds Staff writers: Carlos Navarro, Robert Sandels LADB ARCHIVES: Back issues are referenced to provide historical background relevant to the articles in this newsletter. These can be accessed with a subscription to the LADB searchable on-line archives at http://ladb.unm.edu/ by clicking on Search Archive. For subscription information, e-mail info@ladb.unm.edu or call 1-800-472-0888. In This Issue: ARGENTINA: LA TABLADA POLITICAL PRISONERS END HUNGER STRIKE AFTER GOVERNMENT REDUCES SENTENCES * Lawmakers break promise to debate case * International pressure mounts * De la Rua acts to avert death of prisoners CHILE: MILITARY ACCUSED OF WITHHOLDING INFORMATION ON DISAPPEARED * Families of victims not satisfied * Special judges will now investigate ____________________________________________________________ ********************* ARGENTINA ********************* ARGENTINA: LA TABLADA POLITICAL PRISONERS END HUNGER STRIKE AFTER GOVERNMENT REDUCES SENTENCES Argentine President Fernando de la Rua issued a decree on Dec. 29 reducing the sentences of ten political prisoners who had been on a hunger strike for 116 days. The sentence reductions were a major reversal by the government, which had refused to step in when the legislature and courts refused to act on proposals to allow the prisoners to appeal their sentences. On Jan. 23, 1989, members of the leftist Movimiento Todos por la Patria (MTP) attacked La Tablada army base on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. They later claimed that they were trying to prevent a coup by the carapintada renegade military group against the government of President Raul Alfonsin (1983- 1989). The military regained control of La Tablada after 30 hours of confrontation that left 28 guerrillas and 11 members of the security forces dead. Three people were unaccounted for and are believed to have been disappeared by the military. The only guerrillas who escaped were MTP leader Enrique Haroldo Gorriaran Merlo and his wife, Ana Sivori. Years later, the couple was captured in Mexico and extradited to Argentina. Gorriaran Merlo claimed responsibility for the September 1980 commando attack that killed former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in Asuncion, Paraguay. The guerrillas captured during the attack on La Tablada were tried under the Defense of Democracy Law, which does not allow an appeal, and most were sentenced to life in prison. Over the years, human rights groups have filed complaints, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) recommended three years ago that the Argentine government take measures to grant the prisoners an appeal, a retrial, or freedom. The IACHR said their situation violates international treaties that Argentina has signed. The IACHR said that, during the battle at La Tablada, at least nine MTP members were summarily executed after they had surrendered, while three others were disappeared. And, the IACHR said, there was conclusive evidence that all the prisoners were tortured and that their trial was plagued with irregularities. The IACHR recommended some form of indemnification for the inmates because the trial violated their right to equality under the law, a suggestion human rights organizations and the prisoners interpreted as a call for their release. Lawmakers break promise to debate case The government failed to act on the IACHR recommendations, and the prisoners began an initial hunger strike last May. They called off the strike after 45 days when government officials and legislators from the ruling Alianza coalition and the opposition Partido Justicialista- peronista (PJ) promised to respond to the IACHR's demands. But Congress subsequently failed to consider any of the bills aimed at modifying the Defense of Democracy Law to give the prisoners the right to an appeal, and 13 inmates-- including four women--from two prisons outside Buenos Aires declared a second hunger strike Sept. 5. Another MTP member, a 72-year-old priest who is serving the rest of his sentence in a monastery because of his age, also joined the strike. In October, de la Rua again asked Congress to modify the law to comply with the accord signed with the IACHR, which would allow an appeal. "Our country is part of an international system of justice, and that is why I am sending Congress a message expressing this." said de la Rua. In late October, the UN Human Rights Committee, meeting in Geneva to assess Argentina's compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, raised some concerns about situations in Argentina, including some alleged torturers who are still on active duty in the military. The committee also brought up the case of La Tablada prisoners, asking whether they had had access to all legal guarantees and a fair trial. Leandro Despouy, the special representative of the Ministry of Foreign Relations who led the Argentine delegation to the hearing, admitted that the accused had still not been granted a chance to appeal. He said the case of the inmates created an "enormous internal debate." The de la Rua administration reacted to the committee's concerns by sending another bill to Congress to incorporate an appeals process for crimes against democracy. As the strike continued, human rights groups in Argentina increased their demands that the government comply with the IACHR recommendations. "We cannot understand or accept the indifference of those who have in their hands the necessary measures to ensure that the state complies with the recommendations made by the IACHR in 1997," which call for reviewing the prisoners' sentences, said a statement by several human rights organizations. In mid-November, Deputy Ramon Torres Molina from the governing Alianza coalition called on the government to take "immediate measures" to help end the hunger strike. Torres Molina asked that the prisoners be released or be given an expedited review of their legal situation. He warned that a failure to act could leave Argentina's political class "responsible for the death of political prisoners." On Nov. 27, prisoner Isabel Fernandez abandoned the hunger strike after 85 days because of serious health problems. "The rest of the prisoners, including her husband, Gustavo Messutti, asked her to abandon the hunger strike to be able to care for their two-year-old daughter Candela, who was born in prison," said Adrian Witemberg, a lawyer for the prisoners. International pressure mounts In early December, former Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega (1979-1990) went to Argentina to appeal on behalf of the prisoners. Ortega, head of the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (FSLN), was part of an international delegation concerned about the health of the strikers. While in Argentina, Ortega was asked whether the Sandinistas had supported the assault on La Tablada. "What I know is that, during our government, Argentine military personnel were part of the dirty war against Nicaragua," said Ortega. "They traveled to neighboring countries, such as Costa Rica and Honduras, and promoted terrorist acts against our country." After visiting six of the prisoners in a Buenos Aires hospital, Portuguese Nobel laureate Jose Saramago accused Argentine politicians and the public of cruelty and denounced the law barring an appeal. He said the government should pardon the prisoners and cited the amnesties that have granted freedom to many military dictators and leftist rebels around Latin America. De la Rua acts to avert death of prisoners After repeated failures by Congress to consider the administration-introduced bills to modify the law, and after the courts refused to rule on the demand for the right to an appeal, de la Rua decreed a reduction in the sentences being served by the members of the MTP. The decree shortened the sentences to between 20 and 25 years for ten of the 12 prisoners, all involved in the attack on La Tablada. Those with the 20-year terms could be released "in the first half of 2002," since they would already have served more than half their sentence. But, for the time being, they will not be granted a new trial nor the right to appeal. The decree did not apply to Gorriaran Merlo nor his wife, Ana Sivori. They have already been granted a retrial, which reduced their sentences to 18 years. De la Rua's decree was announced by Justice and Human Rights Minister Jorge de la Rua, brother of the president, in a televised address. He said the government had decided to commute the sentences because of a plea by the IACHR. Relatives of the convicts said the inmates, many of whom had lost more than 20 kg, had called off their liquids-only fast after the decree was announced. Doctors said the inmates have suffered irreversible health damage and were just days away from death if they had continued to fast. The prisoners' lawyer welcomed the government concession, but said the prisoners would continue to campaign for their immediate release through other channels. "This is a major step, but we will still be demanding immediate freedom for the prisoners," said Witemberg. [Sources: Spanish news service EFE, 11/10/00, 11/27/00, 11/29/00; Notimex, 12/05/00; Reuters, 10/23/00, 12/27/00, 12/29/00; Inter Press Service, 10/26/00, 10/30/00, 12/27/00, 12/29/00; Associated Press, 11/15/00, 12/29/00; El Nuevo Herald (Miami), 12/09/00, 12/30/00] ********************* CHILE ********************* CHILE: MILITARY ACCUSED OF WITHHOLDING INFORMATION ON DISAPPEARED As a result of an agreement between the military and human rights lawyers, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos has received information on the fate of some victims of the military dictatorship and turned it over to the Supreme Court. But human rights groups and relatives of the victims have questioned whether the information is just another move to avoid responsibility. In June 2000, a forum (Mesa de Dialogo sobre Derechos Humanos), which had been established in August 1998 and which included military officers and human rights lawyers, agreed on procedures to help determine the fate of more than 1,000 victims of the military regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet (1973- 1990). The military agreed to encourage active-duty and retired military to turn over information regarding what happened to the detained-disappeared (see NotiSur, 2000-06-30) within a six-month period. The anonymity of those who provided information was guaranteed. The agreement was supposed to help Chileans finally put the abuses committed during the Pinochet regime behind them. The official 1991 Rettig Report said that 3,190 people were killed for political reasons during Pinochet's dictatorship and 1,197 others were disappeared. Lagos received the information on Jan. 5. In an address to the nation Jan. 7, Lagos said that many of the disappeared had been killed and their bodies thrown from airplanes into the sea, lakes, and rivers, or dropped over the Andes. The following day, Lagos said the new information covered 200 cases. Of those, 151 had been dumped into the ocean, another 29 buried throughout Chile, and 20 are believed to be in a mass grave in greater Santiago. However, names of the victims were only provided in 180 cases and in just 45 cases was there information on the location of the body. The report, prepared in part by the armed forces, is the first time the military has acknowledged that dissidents were killed by Pinochet's security forces after the 1973 coup against President Salvador Allende (1970-1973). But the report provided little information about how or why the murders were carried out or which military officers were involved. "The information gathered speaks of deaths, clandestine graves, bodies thrown into the sea, the lakes, or the rivers of Chile," Lagos said. The president praised the military for admitting the killings. The military shares "the pain that those acts provoked," he said. "Today's men in uniform have had to respond for the actions of yesterday's men in uniform." The admission by the military has even shaken some staunch Pinochet supporters who have maintained through the years that the charges against the military were false. Retired Gen. Luis Cortes, director of the Fundacion Pinochet and an unswerving ally of the general, said the revelations made him "very bitter as a soldier, because I don't know how many subordinates I told that we had nothing to do with the charges. How many people believed me. My own sons, who are in the military. It is very painful." Families of victims not satisfied The scantiness of the report, the discrepancies in it, and the impossibility of confirming much of the information has heightened tensions rather than promote healing. The families of many of those who vanished following the coup expressed shock and outrage following Lagos' speech. Human rights lawyer Pamela Pereira, who sat on the 1999 panel and just learned that her father had been thrown into the ocean, said the police are still withholding details about missing people. "Look me in the eyes, and tell me that there is no more information," she said in a challenge to the head of the police. Nelson Donato, a member of the Agrupacion de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos (AFDD), said the military's report said his father had been thrown into the ocean, but Judge Guzman's investigation had found that Donato's father was cremated in Santiago. "Two deaths for one person," said Donato. "Whom do I believe?" Viviana Diaz, head of the AFDD, whose father was arrested in May 1976 and killed six months later, said being told that her father was thrown into the Pacific is not enough. "All I've wanted, all these years, was to find the remains of my father and be able to bury them," Diaz said. "Now, I am told that I will never be able to do so. I need to know exactly what happened, how were his final hours, who made the decision to kill him, how was he taken to the sea and exactly where?" Despite her frustration, Diaz saw positive aspects in the disclosures. "What is really important is that the army has, for the first time, admitted that it killed 200 Chileans just because they thought differently," said Diaz. Many relatives are skeptical of the claim that scores were killed and dumped into the sea. Lawyer Carmen Hertz said she did not believe her husband, journalist Carlos Berger, was thrown into the sea. She said her family's investigation determined that Berger and colleagues were buried in a mass grave in northern Chile. "This looks like an intelligence operation by the army to divert ongoing investigations by the courts," Hertz said. "It is a fraud that shows a lack of respect for the families [of the disappeared] and society at large." Partido Comunista (PCCh) president Gladys Marin, whose husband Jorge Munoz was among those killed, said the information was "a mockery, impossible to believe." Several relatives accused the military of providing minimal information in an effort to end the legal actions against Pinochet. Moreover, by admitting that the victims were murdered, and therefore no longer "missing," the crimes may be covered by the amnesty laws. Chilean courts have upheld prosecutions in cases where a victim's body was never found by treating the disappearance as a kidnapping and thus an ongoing crime. The military may be trying to claim that reporting how and where someone disappeared is tantamount to finding the body. On Jan. 8, the administration bristled at the implication by Navy commander Adm. Jorge Arancibia that the search for information regarding the detained and disappeared was subject to conditions by the military, possibly related to the case against Pinochet. Arancibia said that the information turned over was "all there was going to be" unless "the conditions of the country changed." "The agreements of the Mesa de Dialogo were not conditioned upon anything," said Interior Minister Jose Miguel Insulza. Nevertheless, Arancibia's comments added to the conviction among the families of the victims that the military has much more information than it has turned over. Special judges will now investigate "The quality of the information will be evaluated in a more precise and definitive manner by the courts of justice," said government spokesman Claudio Huepe. The government has asked Chileans to be patient and let the courts do their work. What is most important, said Insulza, is the "recognition of the detention, kidnapping, execution, and clandestine disposal of the bodies." On Jan. 9, Corte Suprema president Hernan Alvarez called the full court into session, during which they appointed two special judges to investigate the information on forced disappearances. The following day, human rights lawyers filed a motion with the San Miguel Appeals Court calling for the court to question former Army pilot Antonio Palomo Contreras regarding Juan Segundo Cortes, whose body was allegedly thrown into the sea. A retired colonel claimed that Contreras confessed to having thrown bodies of prisoners into the sea in the years following the coup. [Sources: Notimex, 12/24/00, 01/06/01; Associated Press, 01/07/01; Reuters, 01/08/01; The Miami Herald, 01/06/01, 01/09/01; CNN, 01/07-09/01; Inter Press Service, 01/09/01; Spanish news service EFE, 12/24/00, 01/06- 08/01, 01/10/01; El Nuevo Herald (Miami), 01/09/01, 01/10/01]  ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= pvtsa-02.11.01-09:10:31-7612