Brazil Urged To Disclose Secret Files

[Judi Lynn]

Source: CBS News

Brazil Urged To Disclose Secret Files
Human Rights Commission Pushes For Release Of Files That Could Locate Missing Guerrillas' Remains
SAO PAULO, Brazil, March 28, 2007

(AP) Brazil's Human Rights Secretariat urged the government to disclose secret documents that could help locate the remains of leftist guerrillas who disappeared or were killed in the 1970s during the country's military dictatorship.

A special commission created to find the remains of militants who were part of a short-lived guerrilla movement in the Amazon jungle recommended in a 200-page report that “the president of the republic decree the declassification of all documents pertaining to the period in question.”

The commission, which is coordinated by the human rights secretariat, said Wednesday that the armed forces should be given 180 days to produce all the documents “or present proof that they were destroyed.”

About 70 opponents of the 1964-1985 military regime joined in a guerrilla movement in Araguaia — where the northern states of Para, Tocantins and Maranhao converge in the Amazon — and were defeated by some 10,000 army troops in 1972. All the guerrillas were killed, captured or “disappeared,” a common euphemism for political opponents who died under torture.



Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/28/world/main2621762.shtml