Argentina's 'Grandmothers' seek pope's assistance

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Argentina's 'Grandmothers' seek pope's assistance
By Jorge Pina Associated Press
Posted: 04/26/2013 11:10:34 PM MDT
Updated: 04/26/2013 11:11:54 PM MDT

VATICAN CITY -- Members of the Argentine human rights group "Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo" asked Pope Francis on Wednesday for help finding still-missing children taken from political prisoners during the country's 1976-83 military dictatorship -- and said the pontiff told them they could count on him.

Estela de Carlotto, president of the group, met briefly with the Argentine pope after Francis' general audience in St. Peter's Square. She handed him a written request that he authorize the opening of archives from the Vatican and the Catholic Church in Argentina in hopes of finding clues about the whereabouts of the children.

The organization estimates that around 500 babies were taken from their mothers while they were detained by the military.

"Every detail can help to identify those who were taken from our families," the letter read.
"We ask that they help us, open the archive and investigate who was responsible in the church for the abduction of our grandchildren," de Carlotto told a news conference. She told reporters that Francis had told her: '"You can count on me. You can count on us.'"

Read more: http://www.dailycamera.com/nation-world-news/ci_23119645/argentinas-grandmothers-seek-popes-assistance

[Judi Lynn]

1. Kissinger approved Argentinian 'dirty war':Declassified US files expose 1970s backing for junta

Kissinger approved Argentinian 'dirty war'
Declassified US files expose 1970s backing for junta

Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
The Guardian, Friday 5 December 2003 21.20 EST

Henry Kissinger gave his approval to the "dirty war" in Argentina in the 1970s in which up to 30,000 people were killed, according to newly declassified US state department documents.
Mr Kissinger, who was America's secretary of state, is shown to have urged the Argentinian military regime to act before the US Congress resumed session, and told it that Washington would not cause it "unnecessary difficulties".

The revelations are likely to further damage Mr Kissinger's reputation. He has already been implicated in war crimes committed during his term in office, notably in connection with the 1973 Chilean coup.

The material, obtained by the Washington-based National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act, consists of two memorandums of conversations that took place in October 1976 with the visiting Argentinian foreign minister, Admiral César Augusto Guzzetti. At the time the US Congress, concerned about allegations of widespread human rights abuses, was poised to approve sanctions against the military regime.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/dec/06/argentina.usa

[Judi Lynn]

2. RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Tortured Labour, Stolen Newborns

RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Tortured Labour, Stolen Newborns
By Marcela Valente
Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 22 2007 (IPS) - “Torture with the electric prod when she was close to term induced accelerated labour,” says the report “Maternidades Clandestinas” (Motherhood in Clandestine Prisons), which tells the stories of dozens of women illegally imprisoned during Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship.

The study by the non-governmental Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo Association was published on the Internet this year, and is updated whenever new evidence arises or young people born to political prisoners in captivity are reunited with their families, three decades later.

Since they formed the association to look for their grandchildren who disappeared during the dictatorship, the Grandmothers have been able to restore the original identities of 88 young people. But they are not satisfied, as another 400 were kidnapped together with their parents, or were born in torture camps and given secretly in illegal adoptions.

Vanina Wiman, a member of the research team at the Gradmothers branch in La Plata, the capital of the province of Buenos Aires, told IPS that “for the moment” work is focused on eight illegal detention centres that operated in the province, but they know that there are “many more cases,” and hope to investigate them all.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2007/10/rights-argentina-tortured-labour-stolen-newborns/