DATE=12/3/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ARGENTINA / "DIRTY WAR" AFTERMATH (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-256819
BYLINE=TRAVIS LEA
DATELINE=BUENOS AIRES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: One of the most notorious generals in
Argentina's last military dictatorship is in jail,
after testifying Friday before a federal judge in
Buenos Aires. Guillermo Suarez-Mason is accused of
kidnapping children of political prisoners in the
illegal detention center he ran during the 1976-1983
military regime. Travis Lea reports from Buenos
Aires.
TEXT: After seven hours of testimony, the federal
judge investigating crimes from the "dirty war" --
when Argentina's right-wing military dictatorship
cracked down on suspected leftists -- ordered
Guillermo Suarez-Mason to be detained in a military
prison. Mr. Suarez-Mason is one of 98 ex-military
leaders accused last month by Spanish Judge Baltazar
Garzon of genocide, terrorism and torture. Many
Argentine military leaders were jailed for such crimes
after the dictatorship fell in 1983, but they were
pardoned by President Carlos Menem in 1990. Mr.
Suarez-Mason, who fled to the United States in 1984,
served about a year of a life sentence after being
extradited in 1988.
Mr. Suarez-Mason is the ninth member of the
dictatorship to be tried and jailed on new charges.
After years of legal efforts, human-rights lawyers
representing families of some of the thousands of
Argentines who disappeared in the "dirty war" found a
crime not covered in the presidential pardons: the
systematic kidnapping of children born in captivity to
political prisoners.
The fact that Argentine justice is working to put
human-rights abusers in jail is remarkable in a time
when new norms of international justice are being
established, amid the trial of Chile's ex-strongman,
Agusto Pinochet in London. Judge Bagnasco has said he
hopes the trials in Argentina demonstrate that South
America can handle its own criminals.
/// BAGNASCO ACT IN SPANISH, IN AND UNDER ///
"I hope we can give the message that justice in
Argentina is serious," says Bagnasco, although it
could still use much improvement. He says he hopes to
demonstrate that Argentina has the will and the means
to continually reduce impunity.
The trial of Mr. Suarez Mason marks the start of a
second round of prosecutions. Several more leaders
also involved in organized kidnapping, may be called
before Judge Adolfo Bagnasco in coming months.
(Signed)
NEB/TL/WTW
03-Dec-1999 20:47 PM EDT (04-Dec-1999 0147 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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