URUGUAY: PROTESTS AT GOVERNMENT'S PROPOSED AMNESTY FOR OFFICERS DURING MILITARY RULE.
Record ID:
230293
URUGUAY: PROTESTS AT GOVERNMENT'S PROPOSED AMNESTY FOR OFFICERS DURING MILITARY RULE.
- Title: URUGUAY: PROTESTS AT GOVERNMENT'S PROPOSED AMNESTY FOR OFFICERS DURING MILITARY RULE.
- Date: 1st September 1986
- Summary: 1. GV EXTERIOR Building with banners 0.04 2. SV & CUs INTERIOR Hunger strikers seated chatting (3 shots) 0.24 3. GV & SVs EXTERIOR Armed troops outside barracks (3 shots) 0.37 4. GV & CUs NIGHT SHOTS Chanting demonstrators with banners (2 shots) 0.49 5. SV & CU Security on pavement as demonstrators parade holding photographs of "disappeared" 1.04 6. SV & TV Demonstrators marching through streets (2 shots) 1.28 InitialsBB/BB Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 16th September 1986 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY
- Country: Uruguay
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA4ECPC5UYBVVBTT9TOM3NHF9BF
- Story Text: MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY
Relatives of "disappeared" Uruguayans, who have been on a hunger strike, led a march of more than 10,000 people through the streets of Montevideo on August 29 in protest at Uruguayan President Julio Sanguinetti's proposal to grant amnesty to officers accused of crimes during military rule from 1973 to 1985. Before the 1984 elections, Sanguinetti's Colorado Party made a pact with the armed forces that it would not hold any human rights trials. Despite growing opposition demands for him to revoke the agreement, the President sent the amnesty bill to Congress, claiming it would bring an end to the divisive human rights debate before it led to death or acts of violence. Opposition leaders have said that Sanguinetti, as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, could face impeachment proceedings if he did not order military officers to submit themselves to the jurisdiction of civilian courts. The heated debate on civil rights came to a head when about 10,000 people took to the streets of the capital, defying a police order prohibiting the march, to demand trials and punishment of those guilty of alleged kidnappings or killings during the military rule. The President has said the proposed amnesty would be for military officers and policemen, and would cover the period from 1962 to 1985 with an expanded amnesty for political prisoners. The move by the President came after the collapse of weeks of negotiations on a compromise plan with leaders of the two main opposition groups, the centre-left National Party and the Broad Front, a leftist coalition. The National Party and Broad Front are said to be drafting their own measures, including trials of all officers accused of human rights crimes.
<strong>Source: REUTERS - DANIEL BAUER</strong> - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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