- Title: ARGENTINA: Former dictator denies systematic baby stealing plan
- Date: 27th June 2012
- Summary: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (FILE) (REUTERS) CLOSE-UP OF VIDELA SEATED IN THE COURTROOM VIDELA AND OTHER ACCUSED
- Embargoed: 12th July 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Argentina
- Country: Argentina
- Topics: Politics,People
- Reuters ID: LVADPMM9027GI267LZ2ZYUUP21KH
- Story Text: Former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla on Tuesday (June 26) denied his military government devised a systematic plan to steal babies from leftist mothers who were "disappeared" during the country's brutal 1976-1983 dictatorship years.
Videla, 86, who was jailed for life in 2010 for murder, torture and kidnapping, has repeatedly justified the brutality of the military junta in the so-called Dirty War crackdown on left-wing opponents.
During Tuesday's hearing, the former dictator repeatedly defended the campaign of state violence that killed thousands of people and even criticized the mothers named in the trial for using their unborn children as "human shields."
"What is true is that all the pregnant women named by the plaintiffs and by the public prosecutor, whom I respect as mothers, were active militants of the terror machine that I previously mentioned. Many of them used their unborn children as human shields while functioning as combatants," Videla said.
The trial, which began in February 2011, surrounds the kidnapping of 35 children from detainees during the Dirty War, 20 of which have been recovered and testified in court.
Human rights group the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which is dedicated to finding children stolen from prisoners at torture centres, has identified 102 illegally adopted children so far, although they think there could be several hundred more who have yet to discover their true identities.
Also facing charges in the case are ex-navy captain, Jorge "Tigre" Acosta; ex-general, Santiago Omar Riveros; ex-admiral Antonio Vanek; and the former obstetrician in the Navy Hospital, Jorge Magnacco.
In Videla's last opportunity to take the stand, he denied babies were systematically stolen from leftist opponents and then put up for adoption.
"If the extraction of a minor did happen, it did not respond to an order nor an implicit validation from any authority or form part of a systematic plan coming from the top officers of the armed forces during the years of the war against terrorism," Videla said.
The dictatorship years began when Videla and two other military leaders staged a coup on March 24, 1976.
The former general said the Dirty War investigations carried out by Argentine President Cristina Fernandez and her predecessor and late husband Nestor Kirchner were a stain on the country's armed forces.
"It is my wish Mrs. President (of the court), to restore the Argentine army, this one of a kind institution of the republic - of which I had the honour to be the commander - in respect to this affront being carried out in an irrational and wanton matter," Videla added.
Human rights groups say up to 30,000 people were kidnapped and murdered or vanished during the dictatorship.
Videla, who calls himself a political prisoner, has attempted to debase the trial as an attack against the armed forces by "those who governs us," a veiled reference to Fernandez's centre-left administration.
After spending years in military jail and under house arrest and being sentenced to a life term for murder torture and kidnapping in December 2010, Videla said the court has no authority in the case and that he had already been tried for the human rights crimes.
"Your honours, I reiterate that you are not my corresponding judges, and the acts that are being investigated in this process have already been tried. Moreover, in my position as a political prisoner, I wish to declare the following; while respecting the formalities, this trial risks becoming a farce to satisfy a political decision of those who governs us," Videla added.
At the height of the 1970s bloodshed, Videla famously denied the kidnappings that were taking place, saying: "There are no disappearances, they're a nonentity, they don't exist."
The sentencing for the case is expected to be handed down on July 5. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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