From duly elected Allende government to fascist General Pinochet. From freedom to a brutal military dictatorship courtesy of the U.S.A.
Accused 'dirty war' officer trial opens
Friday, January 14, 2005 · Last updated 7:33 a.m. PT
By MAR ROMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
MADRID, Spain -- A former Argentine navy officer who once admitted to throwing political opponents from airplanes to their deaths during his country's "dirty war" two decades ago went on trial Friday, the first person to be tried in Spain for crimes against humanity in another nation.
Adolfo Scilingo, 58, who has been on a hunger strike since mid-December to protest his trial, arrived at the National Court in an ambulance and suffered a dizzy spell in a holding cell, forcing the first session to start late, be interrupted and end early.
Scilingo, looking weak and pale, spent most of the session wrapped in a dark blanket, grimacing and covering his eyes with clenched fists. When he took the stand, he mumbled unintelligibly as one member of the three-judge panel read the charges against him, which include torture, genocide and terrorism.
Scilingo voluntarily went to Spain in 1997 to testify before National Court Judge Baltasar Garzon, who since the late 1990s has spearheaded an investigation into human rights violations by military regimes in Argentina and Chile. Scilingo, who did not have a grant of immunity, confessed to throwing 30 drugged, naked dissidents from planes into the Atlantic in what were known as "death flights." Garzon jailed him, but Scilingo has since recanted.
After the late start and interruption for court doctors to examine Scilingo, about all that got done was a reading of excerpts from the 1997 testimony about the death flights.
Scilingo's case is the latest in a growing body of international law that allows courts in one country to judge human rights crimes allegedly committed in another, regardless of the suspect's nationality.
In a landmark ruling in 1998, the National Court said crimes against humanity, such as genocide, can be tried in Spain regardless of where they were committed or the nationality of the suspects.
Outside the courthouse Friday, Argentine protesters waved banners saying the former military regime was responsible for the death or disappearance of 30,000 people and had stolen 5,000 babies. "Where are they?" one banner asked.
Apart from Spain, other European countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium have brought perpetrators to trial for serious human rights abuses committed elsewhere, particularly in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
In Argentina's case, Scilingo was one of the first officers to come forward and openly admit atrocities were committed under the junta's brutal 1976-83 crackdown on leftists.
Garzon's indictment of Scilingo and dozens of other suspects argues that the Argentine regime tried to systematically eliminate an entire group of people - its socialist political opponents - and that this amounted to attempted genocide.
Officially, more than 13,000 people disappeared during Argentina's crackdown on dissidents. Some human rights groups claim there were as many as 30,000 victims.
Scilingo has fought to avoid trial and launched the hunger strike as part of this protest. He fainted in jail Wednesday but doctors examined him and declared him fit for trial.
The trial is expected to last until mid-February. Another Argentine suspect, Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, who was extradited from Mexico to Spain in 2003 at Garzon's request, is also awaiting trial for human rights abuses.
Accused 'dirty war' officer trial opens
Friday, January 14, 2005 · Last updated 7:33 a.m. PT
By MAR ROMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
MADRID, Spain -- A former Argentine navy officer who once admitted to throwing political opponents from airplanes to their deaths during his country's "dirty war" two decades ago went on trial Friday, the first person to be tried in Spain for crimes against humanity in another nation.
Adolfo Scilingo, 58, who has been on a hunger strike since mid-December to protest his trial, arrived at the National Court in an ambulance and suffered a dizzy spell in a holding cell, forcing the first session to start late, be interrupted and end early.
Scilingo, looking weak and pale, spent most of the session wrapped in a dark blanket, grimacing and covering his eyes with clenched fists. When he took the stand, he mumbled unintelligibly as one member of the three-judge panel read the charges against him, which include torture, genocide and terrorism.
Scilingo voluntarily went to Spain in 1997 to testify before National Court Judge Baltasar Garzon, who since the late 1990s has spearheaded an investigation into human rights violations by military regimes in Argentina and Chile. Scilingo, who did not have a grant of immunity, confessed to throwing 30 drugged, naked dissidents from planes into the Atlantic in what were known as "death flights." Garzon jailed him, but Scilingo has since recanted.
After the late start and interruption for court doctors to examine Scilingo, about all that got done was a reading of excerpts from the 1997 testimony about the death flights.
Scilingo's case is the latest in a growing body of international law that allows courts in one country to judge human rights crimes allegedly committed in another, regardless of the suspect's nationality.
In a landmark ruling in 1998, the National Court said crimes against humanity, such as genocide, can be tried in Spain regardless of where they were committed or the nationality of the suspects.
Outside the courthouse Friday, Argentine protesters waved banners saying the former military regime was responsible for the death or disappearance of 30,000 people and had stolen 5,000 babies. "Where are they?" one banner asked.
Apart from Spain, other European countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium have brought perpetrators to trial for serious human rights abuses committed elsewhere, particularly in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
In Argentina's case, Scilingo was one of the first officers to come forward and openly admit atrocities were committed under the junta's brutal 1976-83 crackdown on leftists.
Garzon's indictment of Scilingo and dozens of other suspects argues that the Argentine regime tried to systematically eliminate an entire group of people - its socialist political opponents - and that this amounted to attempted genocide.
Officially, more than 13,000 people disappeared during Argentina's crackdown on dissidents. Some human rights groups claim there were as many as 30,000 victims.
Scilingo has fought to avoid trial and launched the hunger strike as part of this protest. He fainted in jail Wednesday but doctors examined him and declared him fit for trial.
The trial is expected to last until mid-February. Another Argentine suspect, Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, who was extradited from Mexico to Spain in 2003 at Garzon's request, is also awaiting trial for human rights abuses.
