Shaft of Light on a ‘Dirty War’ : Argentine general admits army did political murders in 1970s and ‘80s

No one knows how many civilians died at the hands of Argentina’s military dictatorship during the “dirty war� it waged beginning in 1976 against those it suspected of sympathizing with a militant leftist movement that was trying to destabilize the country. An official report put the number at more than 9,000. Human rights groups say the true figure could be closer to 30,000. The bodies of most of the junta’s victims have never been recovered.

For the most part, the facts about those who are known in Argentina as “the disappeared� have remained cloaked in secrecy, with the relevant documentation apparently destroyed when the military stepped down in 1983 after seven years in power. Last March a former navy officer publicly told of tortured but still living prisoners being thrown to their deaths from military aircraft over the ocean. Now the commander of the army, Gen. Martin Balza, has spoken out to acknowledge the army’s chilling role in the kidnaping and murder of political prisoners. Similar revelations from navy and air force leaders are expected soon.

“We must no longer deny the horror we lived through,� Balza said in a television interview. He himself appears to have largely clean hands in that he served as military attache in Peru during the dirty war. His admission that the military freely used illegal methods, “including the suppression of life,� reopens a bitter controversy.

Laws enacted under former President Raul Alfonsin pardoned those who participated in the dirty war. The current president, Carlos Saul Menem, who faces a reelection vote on May 14, has been unenthusiastic about any public airing of the crimes of the past. Some in the military have meanwhile rushed to denounce Balza and have spoken proudly of what they claim was a just war to save their country. No matter. The terrible facts about a brutal and destructive chapter in Argentina’s history have now been exhumed, and it will be impossible to rebury them.

Argentina in time will be a politically healthier country because the truth is at last seeing the light of day.