"Under the Mark of Genocide" - Priest Convicted in Argentine "Dirty War" Tribunal

Priest Convicted in Argentine "Dirty War" Tribunal
By Sam Ferguson
t r u t h o u t | Report

Wednesday 10 October 2007

La Plata, Argentina - Close to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, a large crowd inside and outside La Plata's federal courthouse erupted into cheers when a three-judge tribunal announced that Father Christian von Wernich was guilty, committed his crimes "under the mark of genocide" and was sentenced to life in prison. Von Wernich, convicted of seven homicides, 31 of instances of torture and 34 instances of kidnapping, is the first member of the Argentine Catholic Church to be convicted for crimes associated with Argentina's last dictatorship.

The courtroom was packed to capacity. A makeshift overflow room, which had sat empty for most of the three months of proceedings, was full. Hundreds of protesters outside erupted when the final verdict came down, igniting fireworks and bursting into cheers. Judge Carlos Rosanski asked "please, please, please" on several occasions, pleading for, but not ordering, silence so that the tribunal could finish reading the verdict.

Von Wernich, who entered the courtroom in a bulletproof vest and sat behind bulletproof glass flanked by three armed and riot-protected guards, nervously looked into the desk where he was seated. As Judge Rosanski read the guilty verdict on the homicide charges, von Wernich exchanged words with his lawyer. As Rosanski announced the crimes were committed "under the mark of genocide," von Wernich blinked rapidly and made direct eye contact with the judge.

Von Wernich, 69, served as police chaplain for the Buenos Aires police force for the first two years of the dictatorship, which ruled from 1976-83. That government was responsible for the disappearance of between 14,000 and 30,000 people, in a clandestine campaign known as the "dirty war."

To this day, the final resting place of most of the disappeared remains unknown, though confessions from a few military officials involved have provided some glimpse into what happened. In his 1995 book, "Confessions of a Dirty Warrior," Adolfo Scilingo recounts taking drugged prisoners and throwing them out of an airplane into the River Plate, alive. The vast majority of those involved in the dirty war, however, have remained silent, under what Carolina Varsky, a human rights lawyer for the Center for Social and Legal Studies, calls a "mafia code." Von Wernich, too, refused to answer to the charges against him when called to the stand on the first day of testimony.

More: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101007R.shtml

in Justice for the war criminals of this administration; who knows how much longer Cheney will live, but Gonzo, Yoo, Addington, et al, are relatively young men.

Sleep tight, ya bastards.

:toast:

The trademark terrorism tactic of the CIA. The mark of the beast. The mass slaughters of Vietnam again, and again, and again. Corporatist morality in practice. More to come.

anti-communist (hey, they can't be all bad) Gehlen apparatus needs only to look at the factual history of what they have done. And do.

(edit typo)

Is when will the United States admit complicity in this genocide? when will the CIA (including Bush's father-RE-Nicaragua, Panama, etc.) be put on trial for it's human rights abuses? when will Henry Kissinger be tried in the Hague? THAT would be JUSTICE.