Some Relieved, Others Outraged : Argentines Call Halt to ‘Dirty War’ Charges

To the relief of some and the outrage of many, the curtain fell Monday on Argentina’s search for justice in the aftermath of a period of state terrorism that claimed at least 9,000 lives.

The deadline passed at midnight Sunday for the filing of charges in connection with the “dirty war” against terrorism that raged between 1976 and 1980.

According to Argentine sources, last-minute accusations of human rights abuses were filed in federal courts around the country against 139 army and navy officers and about a dozen policemen and civilians. Under a controversial punto final (full stop) law, no new charges may now be filed for abuses committed during that period.

“Those who have not been accused are innocent,” Justice Secretary Ideler Tonelli said Monday.

Justification Belief

The rash of accusations has fanned disquiet among members of the armed forces, who believe they were justified in fighting fire with fire to win an undeclared war started by Marxist guerrillas.

Human rights advocates contend that the law represents an amnesty that frees from prosecution hundreds of junior officers responsible for murder and torture.

Among the newly accused are two former military presidents, Leopoldo F. Galtieri and Reynaldo Bignone, the last of four generals who ruled Argentina between 1976 and 1983. Former Presidents Jorge R. Videla and Roberto E. Viola have already been sentenced after human rights trials unprecedented in Latin American history.

The accusations against Bignone and Galtieri--the latter is serving a 12-year sentence for having directed a losing war with Britain over the Falkland Islands in 1982--deal with orders that they allegedly issued as troop commanders before becoming president.

Active Duty Officers

About 30 of the officers accused before federal courts in eight cities are still on active duty, and the government said Monday that it will withdraw from congressional consideration promotion requests for a number of them.

Thirteen generals, including the current commandant of the army war college, and five colonels are among 21 officers accused in La Plata, capital of the province of Buenos Aires.

Nineteen naval officers are accused of murder and torture carried out at a school for navy mechanics here that was the most infamous of about 300 clandestine military detention centers at the height of the repression.

One of the generals accused in Buenos Aires is cashiered fugitive Carlos Suarez Mason, a former corps commander who is in jail in San Francisco awaiting disposition of an Argentine government request for extradition.

President Raul Alfonsin, appealing for “national reconciliation,” proposed the punto final last December despite opposition from within his own party, the Radical Civic Union, and despite opinion polls showing that a majority of Argentines wanted a fuller house cleaning. The effect of the speedup was to focus accusations against those who gave orders, in effect sparing many of those who carried them out.

Congressional Approval

Alfonsin, whose election restored democratic government to Argentina, argued that there was need to speed up and conclude the proceedings he had begun upon assuming the presidency in 1983. Congress approved his proposal at year’s end.

Military courts have consistently balked at human rights trials, forcing civilian courts to assume jurisdiction.

As prosecutors rushed to assemble cases at a time normally set aside for summer vacations (the seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere), military resistance stiffened. There was speculation that accused navy officers would refuse to accept court summonses.