Ex-Argentine Leaders Face Murder Counts

Three former presidents of Argentina and six members of the military juntas they headed will be tried in public on charges that include murder, kidnaping and torture, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday.

The prosecutor, Julio Strassera, said there are 711 counts in all, and that these are “only a representative sample” of human rights abuses carried out during the so-called dirty war against Marxist guerrillas in Argentina.

Responding to a request for information from the civilian appeals court where the trial is to take place, Strassera said he will argue that the former junta members must share responsibility for abuses carried out while they governed the country, from 1976 to 1982, and for abuses by the armed forces as well.

“The accused are legally responsible for the actions of their subordinates who carried out the abuses,” Strassera said. “Since the accused controlled the structure of the state, it was not necessary for them to participate personally in acts carried out under a system they had established.”

The charges were based on more than 9,000 cases documented by a blue ribbon presidential commission. In a report last September, the commission called the military repression “the greatest and most savage tragedy of our history.”

Among the charges against the three former presidents--Jorge R. Videla, Roberto Viola and Leopoldo F. Galtieri, all army generals--are murder, kidnaping, torture, robbery, invasion of property and forgery of public documents.

The same charges will be brought against former junta members Adm. Emilio Massera, Adm. Armando Lambruschini and air force Brigadier Orlando Agosti. Murder is not among the charges brought against Brig. Omar Graffigna, who will face most of the other charges. Brig. Basilio Lami Dozo and Adm. Jorge Anaya are charged only with kidnaping and forgery.

According to Strassera, the public trial, unusual in a country where legal proceedings customarily take place behind closed doors, will begin in mid-April. It is expected to last several months.

Civilian President Raul Alfonsin ordered the proceedings against the former junta members immediately upon taking office in December, 1983. Some human rights groups say that as many as 30,000 Argentines disappeared during the military repression, which was at its worst between 1976 and 1980.

The armed forces insist that their repression was necessary to save Argentina from chaos at the hands of the guerrillas. Most of the accused former commanders have refused to respond to preliminary interrogation by the court, arguing that any charges must be brought in military courts.

Human rights accusations against officers of lesser rank are being heard by military tribunals, but there have been no convictions.

With the approach of the public trial, there have been reports of unrest in the armed forces at the prospect of public humiliation. The armed forces’ prestige is already at an all-time low as a result of the years of military rule and the 1982 war with Britain over the Falkland Islands. The members of the junta that ruled until June, 1982--Galtieri, Lami Dozo and Anaya--face military charges for their conduct of the war.

In what was widely regarded as a sop to military pride, the federal court where trial is to take place has ruled that the defendants need not be present for the trial.