Argentine lower house repeals impunity laws

[Say_What]

<clips>

With marchers demanding justice outside, Argentina's Chamber of Deputies voted late Tuesday night to annul two laws providing immunity from prosecution on atrocities charges for former officials of the 1970s dictatorship.

The legislators declared the Final Stop and Due Obedience laws "null" at 11:34 (0234 GMT on Wednesday) in a congressional session that lasted almost eight hours. Now the nullification bill will be sent to the Senate for its approval.

The thousands of demonstrators in the streets outside got something to cheer about when the lower house voted earlier to approve a government bill incorporating provisions of an international pact on crimes against humanity into the Argentine Constitution.

The measure was the first of three bills that must pass both houses to put an end to the so-called "impunity laws," which were promulgated by the administration of Raul Alfonsin (1983-1989). The head of the governing Peronist party bloc, Jose Maria Diaz Bancalari, called the vote a "historic decision," adding that such an outcome was the wish of President Nestor Kirchner.

http://www.falkland-malvinas.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=2480

[seventhson]

1. Wish we could do this here

seems like the BFEE can get away with anything from financing Hitler, Saddam, Osama, and Noriega to lying to get wars going not to mention 9-11 - America's Reichstag fire.

One of these days....

[David__77]

2. Jail for the fascists!

They should be exposed, tried and imprisoned--all those who tortured and killed thousands of progressives over the years of Argentine fascism.

[FAndy9]

3. FYI,

there is actually a grave misconception here, so I'll explain.

As an Argentine, this is all very nice and all, but the law was "derogated", not "nullified". What that means is that from this point on all new cases will not consider any of those laws as legal. HOWEVER, only a unanimous vote by the Supreme Court can nullify the laws -that is, those who got off the hook in the past can now be tried-, so the reality is that we'll have to wait until one of the political trials on one of the SC Judges is finished and an empty spot is filled to try the those guilty of the Process.

An excellent gesture, but the fact is that this should have been done 10 years ago, not right now when the political color of the Executive and Legislative powers allow it.

[Say_What]

5. How right you are about not being passed sooner

and I notice from the HRW report that Spain is getting ready 'to seek the extradition of 45 former members of the Argentine security forces and one civilian for human rights violations'.

Meanwhile, in nearby Chile, Pinochet remains free and in the US Henry Kissinger will soon not be able to travel outside the country. In Argentina there is a summons for him to answer for the disappearance of its citizens, and Chile wants to question him regarding the murder of Charles Horman.

<clips>
...While a certain numbness creeps into your soul when you start totting up Kissinger's crimes, those abominations should hardly paralyze the wheel of law. Three countries are already after the man. In May, French magistrate Roger Le Loire subpoenaed Kissinger to testify about the murder of five French civilians by Operation Condor. Kissinger fled Paris the next day. Then in June, Argentine judge Rodolf Canacoba Corral issued Kissinger a summons to answer for the disappearance of its citizens. Chilean judge Juan Guzman Tapia is also seeking to question Kissinger concerning the murder of Charles Horman.

In a sense, the problem is deciding where to stop the list of potential war criminals. Kissinger certainly engaged in war crimes in Vietnam, but so did General William Westmoreland and a host of other commanders -- the "I was just following orders, and it was a complex war" gang -- who created free-fire zones, imprisoned civilians in strategic hamlets, and released troops to take part in Operation Phoenix. And what do we do about the civilian leaders who knew exactly what was going on in places like Thanh Phong, but saw it as a "necessity of war"?

This country has never acknowledged that Americans can commit war crimes. Indeed, while we may arrest Serbs and send them to The Hague, the U.S. does not recognize the jurisdiction of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal. Congress only passed a law against war crimes in l996.

However, we are still bound by the Geneva Convention, which recognizes no statute of limitations on war crimes and allows those so charged to be tried in other countries. Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet dodged just such a trial in England by pleading ill health, and recently, several Catholic nuns were convicted in Belgium of crimes against humanity for their participation in the 1994 genocidal rampage against Tutsis and their Hutu allies in Rwanda.

http://www.examiner.com/opinion/default.jsp?story=OPhallinan0706w

BTW, welcom to DU, FAndy9. :hi:

[Say_What]

4. Human Rights Watch: Argentina: Holding Rights Abusers Accountable

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...“Argentina has decided that those who participated in the massive human rights violations under military rule should finally be held accountable,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Executive Director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. “Tuesday’s vote shows that in a democracy, laws that shield from justice those responsible for atrocities cannot survive forever.”

The Argentine Chamber of Deputies voted to annul the Full Stop and Due Obedience laws just before midnight Tuesday. The Full Stop Law prevented the hearing of cases filed with the courts after a deadline of 60 days. The Due Obedience Law granted automatic immunity to all members of the military except those in positions of command.

The chamber also voted by an overwhelming majority to give constitutional status to the U.N. Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, which Argentina had ratified Monday. And it passed a bill to amend national legislation barring impunity for this type of crime.

The bills now move to the Senate, which is expected to ratify them.

An estimated 15,000 people “disappeared” when Argentina was under military rule from 1976 to 1983.

http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/08/argentina081403.htm