Coming Clean After a ‘Dirty War’

An Argentine judge has ordered the arrest of six more military officers on charges of kidnapping the children of dissidents during Argentina’s “dirty war” of 1976-1983. Nine were already being held. The latest action takes human rights groups and the families of the victims closer to establishing what happened to prison-born infants and bringing to justice the leaders of the military junta. Only the truth will permit the Argentines to clear up their past and rebuild their society.

In those chilling years, during which security forces killed untold numbers of the generals’ opponents, many pregnant women suffered another brutal fate. They were held until they delivered their babies, who then were sold or given to members of the regime who wanted a child. During recent court proceedings, one witness testified, “Newborn babies were given away like kitties . . . especially those who were white.”

Some of the top junta leaders were tried and convicted but subsequently given amnesty by then-President Carlos Menem. Now that Argentina has a new president, a group known as the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, composed of women who march on the main square in Buenos Aires seeking justice, has asked for an investigation into whether there was a systematic plan for adoption of as many as 200 children born to prisoners, some of whom were then executed. Child kidnapping was not covered by the presidential pardons granted by Menem.

So far, the parentage of at least 60 of these children has been documented. But the relatives of the victims of Argentina’s dirty war want to know how many more babies were sold or given away.

The grandmothers are asking that blood samples be taken from children who they suspect were taken from their mothers. Matching blood types and DNA could solve the puzzle. The victims of the dirty war are owed that and more.