Brazil: Dilma on amnesty law

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff recently discussed issues including the amnesty law which protects dictatorship-era human rights abusers in an interview with "The New York Times".

Rousseff said that as president, she respected the law, despite her personal views. “I don’t believe in vindictiveness, but I also don’t believe in forgiving,” she said.

“It’s a question of the truth,” she added. “It’s extremely important for Brazil to know what happened, because that will mean it won’t happen again.”

Brazilian President Rejects Criticism Over World Cup (NY Times)

Suriname: President granted immunity

This blog has rarely mentioned South America's smallest independent country, Suriname - in fact, it has linked to a story about it just once, back in 2009. Suriname has a total population around half of the city where I live. But now the former Dutch colony has made the international news for granting its president, Desi Bouterse, immunity for crimes committed under his previous military dictatorship.

The amnesty law, which was passed by 28 votes to 12 in the Surinamese parliament, seems to fall under the "look ahead, not behind" category of measures and is also an attempt to solve the difficulty of having a serving president on trial for murder.

Ronnie Brunswijk, leader of the Maroon party and former Bouterse foe who joined the coalition that elected him president, voted in favor of the amnesty legislation "with a lot of pain in my heart." He apologized to relatives of the victims of the December 1982 killings but said the country could not afford to have its president convicted at a trial.

A slightly odd argument really. I would've thought that if you have a president likely to be convicted of murder, the problem is more with the president than with the trial - but maybe that's just me.

Suriname lawmakers adopt amnesty for president (AP)
Suriname parliament gives President Bouterse immunity (BBC)

Uruguay: Aftermath of amnesty lifting

A post on Uruguay is well overdue as there have been a few linked stories in the news since the lifting of the country's amnesty.

On 1 November, AFP reported that human rights group IELSUR had filed a complaint "against some 100 troops in the name of 90 people detained in a decade-long crackdown against communists launched in 1975". The plaintiffs allege "torture, cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment during the entire period of their detention," according to IELSUR lawyer Jorge Pan. 28 women had also filed complaints of sexual abuse during the period.

Flood of rights lawsuits after Uruguay lifts amnesty (AFP)

The following day, German Catholic news agency KNA reported that the 28 women had made their statements on 28 October, followed by another 170 dictatorship victims on 29 October and about 140 on 30 October. It pointed out that female members of the military were implicated in torture for the first time.

Folteropfer der Militärdiktatur erstatten Anzeige (KNA)

On 10 November, Prensa Latina referred to a report from Uruguayan daily La Republica stating that a dozen military men would appear in court as part of the investigations conducted to clarify a crime committed during the dictatorship. Judge Mariana Mota will interrogate three military men on Monday in the case of Aldo Perrini, who was tortured to death after being arrested by soldiers of the 4th Infantry Battalion of the department of Colonia, the agency wrote.

Uruguay: Soldiers Summoned for Crimes During Dictatorship (Prensa Latina)

Finally, the Journalism in the Americas blog picked up on the case of Rodolfo Porley, who has filed charges for torture he suffered during the 1970s. More detail is provided by El Comercio of Ecuador, which reports Porley's claims that his motivation is the memory of the victims and a desire to prevent similiar incidents happening again.

Journalist in Uruguay sues for torture he suffered under military dictatorship (Journalism in the Americas)
Periodista uruguayo denuncia torturas y crímenes de lesa humanidad (El Comercio, Ecuador)

Uruguay: Congress votes to overturn amnesty law

Uruguay's Congress has voted to lift an amnesty law that protected officers from prosecution for crimes committed during military rule from 1975 to 1983, paving the way for possible future trials.

The vote was 50-40 and the bill is now expected to be signed by President Jose Mujica in the nick of time - the statute of limitations would have kicked in on 1 November.

Human rights activists, naturally, have welcomed the move. It was still a difficult decision in Uruguay, as illustrated by the fact that the congressional debate lasted 12 hours. While Luis Puig, a deputy with the ruling Broad Front coalition, called the measure an end to impunity, opponents have presented it as ignoring the will of the people since the amnesty law has been upheld in two referendums. It's a little more complicated than that though; for a start, the country's supreme court had ruled the law unconstitutional. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights had also insisted that Uruguay must remove the law. The referendum result had also been close, around 48%, narrowly missing the required 50%.

We will have to see what the end to the amnesty brings. The military is attempting a pre-emptive strike and already calling for prosecutions for former guerrillas.

Uruguay overturns amnesty for military-era crimes (BBC)
Uruguay Lawmakers Revoke Dirty War Amnesty (Time)
Uruguay scraps 'dirty war' amnesty (Aljazeera)

Uruguay: Amnesty law ruling

In an important ruling, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has said that Uruguay must remove obstacles to prosecuting human rights offenses committed during its "dirty war" in the 1970s.

The case related specifically to María Claudia García Iruretagoyena de Gelman, the daughter-in-law of Argentine poet Juan Gelman.

As the New York Times explains,

Ms. Gelman was abducted in Buenos Aires in 1976 at age 19 while seven months pregnant. She was later transferred to a clandestine detention center in Uruguay. Her daughter, María Macarena Gelman, was born in captivity and left in a basket at the door of a Uruguayan police officer; the couple adopted her, giving them their name. The child’s grandfather, the Argentine poet Juan Gelman, tracked her down more than 20 years later and she restored her identity.

The court has now ruled that Uruguay must ensure that the amnesty must never again become an obstacle for investigations into the events of the dictatorship.

Human Rights Court calls on Uruguay to remove ‘dirty war’ amnesty law (Mercopress)
Court Condemns Uruguay for a Disappearance (New York Times)
OAS court: Uruguay must drop 'dirty war' amnesty (AP)
Macarena Gelman "conmovida" por la sentencia de la CIDH (Pagina/12)

And the truly interested can read the full ruling (in Spanish) here.

Chile: Church Amnesty Call Rejected

As a follow-up to my last post, Piñera has rejected calls for an amnesty for human rights criminals. This is good news, and shouldn't really be too surprising - I agree with Greg that there wasn't much to gain politically from a pardon - but with the influence of the military in the Southern Cone, you can't always be sure.

Chile denies pardon for dictatorship-era crimes (Reuters)
Chile rejects pardons proposed by Catholic Church (AP)
Piñera rejects Bishops plea to pardon military involved in human rights abuses (Mercopress)

Chile: no amnesty for you (Two Weeks Notice)

Chile: Church Calls for Amnesty

Chile's bishops' conference is calling for an amnesty which could affect some members of the military imprisoned for Pinochet-era crimes. They describe this as a "humanitarian act which will contribute to reconciliation".

According to the BBC, the Catholic Church in Chile is suggesting that "any members of the country's military who show repentance for the crimes they committed under military rule" should be pardoned, but AP specifies that "the church's proposed amnesty would apply to prisoners who are sick or older than 70 or those who have served half their sentence". The prospective amnesty is in fact not exclusively for or limited to military criminals, but includes them, and this is the group which will receive attention from the media and rights groups.

The president of the bishops' conference, Alejandro Goic, has defended the appeal in the face of outrage from relatives and human rights group, demanding, "Do they want us to call for hate?" (La Tercera).

Sigh... I don't know. I accept that my position on organised religion in general and the Roman Catholic leadership in particular is not unbiased, to put it mildly, but it still gets to me: how do they manage to be on the wrong side every single time?! Where are they with their demands for justice for the victims? Why do they insist on confusing justice with "hate" or revenge? It just seems like a wilful attempt to misrepresent the struggle of the victims' families, to be honest. Please, go ahead and forgive the torturers, if you want - give them all the Christian love you like. I just don't see why you have to fight for their freedom when there are innocent people out there waiting for a fair deal from the Chilean judicial system. But honestly - if anyone wants to explain to me how this will assist reconciliation, fire away.

Chilean Church seeks clemency for aging prisoners (AP)
Church call for pardon angers Chile rights groups (Reuters)
Chile bishops seek pardons for military-rule crimes (BBC)
Indulto: Iglesia pide que se estudie caso a caso situacion de condenados por delitos de Derechos Humanos (La Tercera)
Obispo Goic defiende propuesta de indulto: 'Querian que llamaramos al odio?' (La Tercera)

Argentina: Calls for Amnesty

In Argentina, right-wing military supporters are planning to hold a march on 20 April entitled "An amnesty for a Bicentennial with political prisoners".

The group known as Asociación de Familiares y Amigos de los Presos Políticos de la Argentina (AFyAPPA; Association of Family and Friends of Political Prisoners in Argentina) and headed by Cecilia Pando considers military human rights abusers to be "political prisoners" and call for "reconciliation", or moving away from the past. They claim that human right activists are solely bent on revenge and accuse them of neglecting the memory of the victims of left-wing violence.

Former Argentine President spoke in a similar tone a few weeks ago, saying,

"in 2011 we have to give birth to a government for all of us" that respects "the ones who are keen on (Jorge) Videla and does who are not,"
[cited in the Buenos Aires Herald]

I'm always frustrated by such pronouncements.
1) It's simply a legal fact that there is no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity
2) The perpetrators of human rights abuses are not being hounded by lawless mobs, but brought before the courts as should happen in a civilised country
3) The only reason that trials are still dragging on thirty years after the fact is because the previous amnesty laws stalled the justice process for two decades

The issue of commemorating the victims of left-wing violence is slightly more complex. Certainly, there were such victims, but in terms of numbers they were far overshadowed by the amount of people killed by the armed forces (we are talking a few dozen on the one hand, and at least 10,000, and by some estimates as many as 30,000, on the other). Some incidents such as the assassination of former president Aramburu by the Montoneros have achieved a symbolic status in Argentine history. I can understand the families of the police and members of the armed forces killed by the Montoneros and the ERP still feel aggrieved - but then, so do the families of the disappeared. I do not believe that the amnesty call is really 'about' the dead, but rather about protecting the criminals who are still alive.

El la misma sintonia que Duhalde (Pagina/12)
Duhalde calls for a Gov't that respects "those who are keen on Videla and those who aren't" (Buenos Aires Herald)

Uruguay: More on Failed Referendum

As I hoped, at least one excellent article has turned up on the result of the Uruguayan referendum which upheld the amnesty law known as the Ley de Caducidad. Although this blog opposes amnesty laws, it is interesting to note the opinions of those who chose to vote "no" to the annullment proposal.

Jeremias Elmasian, a hotelier in Uruguay who did not support the initiative, said over lunch on Saturday before the election that "we have to look to the future."

Gonzalo Aguirre Ramirez, a former senator and former vice president, said that annulling the amnesty law harmed legal stability and was "very dangerous." "Imagine if you get divorced and then you remarry. Then, the state annuls the marriage law and prosecutes you for bigamy. This is the path we're taking."... Aguirre Ramirez called the amnesty "a just solution. For 15 years it worked well. We amnestied the tupamaros" - the urban guerrilla group, which operated prior to and during the first years of the dictatorship - "and the military."

Others said that the amnesty was fair because political prisoners and guerrillas were amnestied as well. Marta Caraballo, a telephone center employee, said she did not vote for the law because "when you lose a war, you lose. We have to move on."

Uruguayan Voters Reject Chance to Prosecute Dictators (truthout)

Uruguay Elections Update

As has been widely reported, the Uruguayan elections will go to a second round which ex-guerrilla José Mujica looks likely to win.

Ex-Guerrilla Ahead in Uruguay Vote (NY Times)
Next President to Emerge from November Runoff (IPS)
Uruguay set for run-off election (BBC)

The move to annul the amnesty law failed - the referendum did not achieve the required majority. In light of the presidential vote, there has been little comment on this. This brief note is the only English-language news items I could find specifically on that subject:

Amnesty law to stay in place following referendum (Radio Nederland Worldwide)

It's disappointing news for those of us who try to oppose impunity, but there are doubtless complex reasons why the population has confirmed its decision of twenty years ago - and it's surely not the end of the road for the human rights activists. I'll try to comment more in the next few days as, hopefully, others will too.

Uruguay Elections....Vote Pink

The keen-eyed among you might notice that the blog is not usually such a garish pink ;-) Pink is the colour of the 'yes' vote in the Uruguayan referendum on the amnesty law, which is taking place on Sunday, so I'll just be leaving the blog like this for about 48 hours.

For more on the elections, see also:

Former Guerrilla vs. Neoliberal (IPS)

and I will be following posts from Memory in Montevideo, such as this one:
Vota SI (Memory in Montevideo)

Images from here

Uruguay: Impunity Law Declared Unconstitutional

There are important moves in Uruguay regarding the amnesty law known as the Ley de Caducidad. In February, key parts of the law were already ruled unconstitutional. In June, enough signatures were collected to initiate a referendum. On Sunday, during the presidential election, the population of Uruguay will be asked whether or not the law should be annulled.

Now events have taken another turn. As part of the case regarding the death of Nibia Sabalsagaray, who was killed in a military barracks in 1974, the Supreme Court has ruled that the law violates the separation of powers and was not properly approved. Officially, the ruling applies only to this case. However,

A lawyer representing her family told the Associated Press that while each case was unique, "it's understood that this sets a precedent and that the Supreme Court won't change if presented with a similar case".

Sunday's referendum will apparently go ahead.

"If the law is annulled, there won't be any sense in ruling that it's unconstitutional, but if the referendum doesn't get enough votes, there is the possibility of making this argument in other cases," prosecutor Mirtha Guianze, who brought the Sabalsagaray case to the Supreme Court, told Reuters news agency.

It is questionable, however, whether the referendum will approve the annulment; polls are apparently showing those in support of it in the low 40%s. So the unconstitutional ruling could indeed turn out to be significant.


Uruguay dirty war amnesty illegal (BBC)
Uruguayan Court throws out special amnesty for crimes under dictatorship (Mercopress)
Ley de Caducidad: sentencia de la SCJ establece importante precedente (Espectador)
"Ley violo separacion de poderes" (La Republica [Uruguay])
Para anular la ley de impunidad (Brecha) [requires registration, source for image used above]

Blogging/News Round-Up

I've been away for the weekend; here's some of the things that have been going on in the past couple of days.

Argentina
Pardons for Argentine junta unconstitutional (To the Roots)

No Impunity for "Dirty War" Crimes (Impunity Watch)

Argentine Court Srikes Down Pardons for Junta Leaders (Latin American Herald Tribune)

Brazil
Brazil Gives Amnesty for Dictatorship-era Uprising (Reuters)

Chile
Hortensia Bussi, Wife of Salvador Allende of Chile, Dies at 94 (New York Times)

Uruguay: Heading for Plebiscite

You might remember that Uruguay has been collecting signatures on a petition regarding its amnesty law (known as the Ley de Caducidad) for some time now. Those who wish to annul the law have now, according to the Electoral Court, officially succeeded in collecting over 250,000 signatures, representing 10% of the electorate. That's the magic number which means that the result will now be put forward to the vote: Uruguayans will be able to decide on the annulment in October. The annulment campaign needs 51% of the votes to win.

Corte Electoral corroboro firmas y habra plebiscito por Ley de Caducidad (El Pais, Uruguay)

Peru: Museum/Human Rights

It's another article from La Republica, this time by Fernando Rospigliosi. I don't have the energy to translate the whole thing, sadly, so here is my edited version:

The deterioration in human rights which has occurred during the government of Alan Garcia is remarkable. The official rejection of the construction of the Museum of Memory is just one of many manifestations of a policy which takes us back to the 1990s.

The attacks on the former Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR) from the government are a daily occurrence. One of the most enthusiastic detractors of the CVR is the APRA politician Edgar Núñez, president of the Commission of Defense of Congress.

His latest blunder was the attack on the photographic exhibition Yuyanapaq, claiming that many of the images shown there are faked. This assault is not coincidental. Yuyanapaq would be a central element of the Museum of Memory. Discrediting the exhibition helps to undermine the museum.

Therefore, on several other occasions, Núñezhas told bare-faced lies, like the good aprista that he is. The photograph of a peasant with part of his head and face covered with a rag [Note: he's referring to the first picture on this page] was taken by experienced Caretas photojournalist Oscar Medrano, which covered the civil war in Ayacucho and other key areas for many years, together with journalist Gustavo Gorriti.

Of course Medrano didn't create a trick photo. He didn't need to, having captured such scenes of horror. And it's not the style of a decent photographer.

[...]

The hand that rocks the cradle, in this case, are the members of the military involved in human rights violations, who have found a docile and malleable spokesperson.

So, while hundreds of bodies were being disinterred in the pit at Putis and in the military base of Los Cabitos, in Ayacucho, Núñez had the bright idea of proposing an amnesty law for the authors of those atrocious crimes.

Retrocesos

Uruguay: Impunity Law Declared Unconstitutional

In Uruguay, momentum has been gathering behind a campaign to annul the amnesty law, popularly known as the Ley de Caducidad, which prevents the prosecution of members of the armed forces accused of human rights abuses during the military dictatorship.

Now, the President and a majority of senators have declared that key articles of the law are incompatible with the constitution.

New Declarations Against Impunity in Uruguay (Upside Down World)

[Speaking of amnesty laws, for a different national context see also:
Amnesty and impunity in case of the Jesuits (Tim's El Salvador Blog)]

Blog Round-Up

It's hectic here, so apologies for the absence of posting, but others are doing great stuff on their blogs:

Inca Kola News points out that not only is Berlusconi prone to horrendously offensive remarks, he was a member of a banned masonic group as well, and in pretty unpleasant company. If he used to hobnob with members of the Argentine far-right military crowd, I'm not surprised he thinks that murdering civilians is a subject for jokes.

Aside from that, consideration of the Uruguayan amnesty law from Impunity Watch, and Plan Colombia and Beyond on the subject of reparations.

Peru: More on that Amnesty

The words 'military amnesty' just make me go a bit cross-eyed. Here's a another article from IPS illustrating why this is such a bad idea.

The Congresswoman’s [APRA representative Mercedes Cabanillas] proposal would create a pardon committee to release from prison those who -- she argues -- were "unjustly" convicted.

And she knows who these people were, does she?

Aurelio Pastor, spokesman for the APRA legislators, told IPS that the ruling party will back the draft law for a pardon, and may also support the proposed amnesty.

"What we want is for (President Alan García) to receive proposals for pardons for members of the police and military who did not violate human rights and are facing trial or have been sentenced," said Pastor. "This is a measure to strengthen the process of reconciliation. Obviously we aren’t suggesting that those who are guilty be pardoned."

Again, according to who? This seems to be based on the premise that Peru's justice system cannot distinguish between the innocent and the guilty.... but politicians who weren't party to all the evidence can. Peru's judicial system may not be perfect, and then reform is of course a possibility, but the problem is hardly solved by convicting people and then just pardoning them en masse.

Cabanillas and Núñez argue that hundreds of members of the security forces who fought the leftist guerrillas from 1980 to 2000 have been tried and sent to jail "merely on the strength of accusations by the victims."

Really - testimony by the victims convicted these people? Unbelievable.

To illustrate their point, the two legislators cite supposed legal proceedings against the members of the Chavín de Huantar commando, which carried out a spectacular rescue of 72 hostages held for four months by the insurgent Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) in the Japanese ambassador’s residence in 1997.

But both Defence Minister Ántero Flores Aráoz and National Ombudswoman Beatriz Merino clarified that not a single member of the Chavín de Huantar commando has been tried, let alone jailed.

So the APRA members lied to prove their point then.

When Congresswoman Cabanillas was asked in an interview by the press to mention an emblematic case of judicial bias against a member of the security forces who deserved to be pardoned, she was unable to name any single case, and merely said that all of them were important.

LOL!
It's no laughing matter though. Peru, don't go down the terrible road that Argentina did, and is only just starting to reverse the damage now that its human rights abusers are dying of old age. Publicity and public outrage is one of the best weapons against impunity, so let's hope that Peru's human rights groups are mobilising at this stage while the draft law is still being discussed (from a glance at Aprodeh's web site, they are).

Activists Warn of "Impunity Measures"