Rights group attacks Argentina’s ‘lax’ policies
NZPA-Reuter Buenos Aires Mothers of people who disappeared under military rule in Argentina accused President Raul Alfonsin’s Government yesterday of lax policies toward the Armed Forces after the recent Army rebellion.
About 500 people joined the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo human rights group on their weekly protest march opposite Government House in the capital three days after loyalist forces put down an Army rebellion led by Lieutenant-Colonel Aldo Rico.
young democracy since Mr Alfonsin took power in 1983 ending eight years of military rule.
Colonel Rico led a rebellion last April against trials of officers accused of rights abuses during the “dirty war.” The rebellion ended only after Mr Alfonsin met Colonel Rico behind closed doors.
“We are here because the Government’s permissive policy is shameful and we believe (army commander) General Dante Caridi and Rico are the same thing,” the group’s president, Hebe de Bonafini, told Reuters during the march. “In our country there are no democratic generals, all are genocides,” she said.
Shortly after the first rebellion the Government passed a law sharply limiting trials of officers accused of rights violations. The law exempted from trial all officers deemed to have been following orders when they comitted abuses. The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo began marching in the square from which they took their name in 1977 to protest against the former military dictatorship’s “dirty war” in which at least 9000 people disappeared. Mrs Bonafini said the group this week focused on the rebellion of last week-end.
been thrown away,” she said. Colonel Rico is in solitary confinement in a military jail and more than 300 officers and noncommissioned officers are also under arrest for taking part in the rebellion. The rebellion was the second big military crisis to threaten Argentina’s
Mrs Bonafini criticised Mr Alfonsin’s statement after Colonel Rico’s surrender that “the house is now in order.”
“When I clean my house I throw everything that is worthless away. But here nothing has
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Press, 23 January 1988, Page 7
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333Rights group attacks Argentina’s ‘lax’ policies Press, 23 January 1988, Page 7
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