Alfonsin Signs Controversial Measure Setting Deadline on Rights Trials

Despite vehement opposition from human rights groups, Argentine President Raul Alfonsin on Friday signed into law a deadline for the prosecution of atrocities committed under former military rulers.

In a related matter, the president of the Argentine Supreme Court said the tribunal will rule next week on appeals by five ex-leaders already convicted of murder, torture and illegal imprisonment.

Alfonsin signed the prosecution deadline law after final congressional approval Tuesday.

The civilian president proposed the legislation as part of what he described as an effort to end bitterness between the military and the politicians who replaced them. He also said it will encourage armed forces participation in programs to consolidate democracy and improve the ailing economy.

A political moderate who has accommodated himself to the realities of Argentine politics, Alfonsin initiated the trials against the senior military officers to punish those responsible for planning and organizing a wave of repression in which an estimated 9,000 people disappeared in the 1970s. Most of those who vanished were believed to have been tortured and secretly executed.

In recent months, however, Alfonsin has told aides that he wants to bring the human rights trials to an end to reconcile the armed forces and concentrate on national development issues.

Leftist politicians and human rights leaders have condemned the measure as condoning heinous crimes. They have promised to challenge its constitutionality.

The law establishes a 60-day deadline for new indictments of military officers, police or other suspects in the abduction, torture and disappearance of thousands of people during rightist armed forces rule from 1976 to 1983.