ARGENTINA: Leaders during the 'Dirty War', the bloody military dictatorship from 1976-1983, go on trial on charges of stealing babies of victims

Record ID: 192475

  • Title: ARGENTINA: Leaders during the 'Dirty War', the bloody military dictatorship from 1976-1983, go on trial on charges of stealing babies of victims
  • Date: 1st March 2011
  • Summary: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (FEBRUARY 28, 2011) (REUTERS) GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVE AND RECOVERED CHILD VICTORIA DONDA WALKING WITH BOYFRIEND (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVE AND RECOVERED CHILD VICTORIA DONDA SAYING: "It's also a demonstration that justice can carried out even though time has passed, and the only things that heal societies are justice and truth. I think it's an example for other countries who are on this road of looking for justice, Spain, Germany, countries where children have also been kidnapped."
  • Embargoed: 16th March 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina, Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA9CR202E362I8OQY9CY89VQMXN
  • Story Text: Former leaders of Argentina's 'Dirty War', the bloody military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, went on trial Monday (February 28) - accused of stealing the children of their victims during a roundup of suspected leftist insurgents.
    Former military leaders Jorge Rafael Videla and Reynaldo Bignone sat with other accused on the bench on Monday as human rights groups gathered outside the courthouse to demand justice.
    In their systematized crackdown, the dictatorship tortured and killed as many as 30,000 people, many of them young activists with infants. Soldiers scooped up children and army officials changed their identity, placing them in homes with military sympathizers.
    The military leaders are charged in 34 different cases of stealing children. In the coming days, some 370 witnesses will take the stand to testify against the accused.
    Human rights groups, led by the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, have worked for years trying to uncover the stolen children, recovering 100 of them.
    When democracy returned to Argentina in 1983, Videla was sentenced to life imprisonment for human rights crimes but was later acquitted.
    The 85-year-old Videla, who still defends the bloody campaign, has spent years in military jail and under arrest. A recent trial jailed him life for charges of murder, torture and kidnapping.
    But Rosa Roisinblit, the vice president of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, explained this is the first trial for kidnapping infants.
    "The oppressors have been tried for theft, rape, torture, and murder, but they've never been tried for stealing babies. At first we were bothered about it. We thought, 'what about our children?' But later we realized it gave us another advantage, the advantage of being able to try them again for the systematic kidnapping of children," she said.
    Victoria Donda, a government representative who was at Monday's trial, is among the recovered children. She was born at a clandestine prison and both of her parents among the ranks of the 'disappeared'.
    Donda, who found out her true identity in 2003, said it showed justice can be carried out over time.
    "It's also a demonstration that justice can carried out even though time has passed, and the only things that heal societies are justice and truth. I think it's an example for other countries who are on this road of looking for justice, Spain, Germany, countries where children have also been kidnapped," she said.
    President Cristina Fernandez and her late husband, former president Nestor Kirchner, opened the door on more Dirty War investigation after many had been pardoned by former president Carlos Menem in 1989.
    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."
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