Germany issues arrest warrant of Argentina ex-Junta chief

[Judi Lynn]

Germany issues arrest warrant of Argentina ex-Junta chief
Germany has issued an arrest warrant for former Argentine dictator Videla on charges of murdering a German man, state prosecutors said.
Friday, 22 January 2010 21:21

Germany has issued an arrest warrant for former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla on charges of murdering a German man, state prosecutors said on Friday.

The 84-year-old former general, who has been indicted in Argentina for stealing babies born to political prisoners and giving them to supporters during his 1976-1981 rule, led one of South America's bloodiest dictatorships in the 1970s.

"We have issued an arrest warrant against the former Junta chief," said Thomas Koch, spokesman for prosecutors in the southern German city of Nuremberg.

Koch said it was unlikely Argentina would extradite Videla, but Germany had renewed its appeal to the international community to arrest him, making it risky for him to travel abroad.

As many as 30,000 people were kidnapped and killed during Argentina's so-called "dirty war" crackdown on leftist dissent, according to human rights groups.

More:
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=53054

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Kissinger approved Argentinian 'dirty war'
Declassified US files expose 1970s backing for junta
Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
The Guardian, Saturday 6 December 2003 02.20 GMT

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.

According to a verbatim transcript of a meeting on October 7 1976, Mr Kissinger reassured the foreign minister that he had US backing in whatever he did.

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

[Judi Lynn]

1. Argentine ex-President Videla wanted by Germany

Page last updated at 23:52 GMT, Friday, 22 January 2010
Argentine ex-President Videla wanted by Germany

A court in Germany has issued an arrest warrant for the former Argentine military leader, Jorge Rafael Videla, on suspicion of murdering a German man.

The case against the 84-year-old was abandoned in 2008 after an Argentine court rejected an extradition request.

But prosecutors in Nuremburg reopened it last year after the body of Rolf Stawowiok, who vanished in the 1970s, was found with signs of bullet wounds.

Tens of thousands of government critics were murdered during military rule.

Videla, who ruled from 1976 to 1981, was sentenced to life in prison in 1985 of the murders of 66 people and the torture of 93 others.

But he was imprisoned for only five years before President Carlos Menem granted him a pardon, together with other junta leaders.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8476321.stm