Alfredo Astiz

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Alfredo Ignacio Astiz (b. November 8, 1951) was a Captain and Intelligence officer in the Argentine Navy, known as the "Blond Angel of Death", during the dictatorial rule of Jorge Rafael Videla in the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (1976–1983).

He was a member of GT332 (Task Force 332) based in the Navy Mechanics School (ESMA) in Buenos Aires during the Dirty War of the late 1970s. GT332 was involved in the deaths of many of the 9,000 to 30,000 victims of forced disappearance during this period. ESMA became a secret concentration camp where as many as five thousand political prisoners were held, tortured and "disappeared".

Alfredo Astiz, specialized in infiltration of human rights NGOs, has been charged for the kidnapping of Azucena Villaflor, the founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, in 1976. However, arrested at the beginning of the 1982 Falklands War, he is wanted by Sweden and France for the forced disappearance of Dagmar Ingrid Hagelin, a 17-yr old Argentine-born girl holding Swedish citizenship, and two French nuns, Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet, the three of them in 1977. A French Cour d'Assises has condemned him in absentia to a life sentence in 1990.

Following the Argentine Supreme Court 2003 decision declaring anti-constitutional the amnesty laws voted during the transition to democracy (Ley de Obediencia Debida and Ley de Punto Final), pursuits against Astiz have been reinitiated in Argentina.

Contents 1 Kidnapping and torture 2 Falklands War 3 Prisoners of war 4 Repatriation 5 Immunity/convictions 6 References 7 External links 8 Further reading

[edit] Kidnapping and torture

Astiz specialized in infiltrating peaceful organisations protesting extra-judicial executions to identify their members and, after sufficient members had been identified, kidnap them. A survivor amongst the many he kidnapped, Martin Gras, a human rights lawyer, claimed in 1982 that Astiz was a charming man who rarely tortured or murdered those he kidnapped but usually handed them on to others in the system. Yet Astiz was well thought of within the armed forces for his effective interrogation techniques and in 1979 he was sent to the Argentine embassy in South Africa to give a series of seminars on torture techniques to the South African security police. While there he also participated in a number of discussion groups to exchange ideas regarding methods of interrogation.

In 1976 Astiz kidnapped Azucena Villaflor de Vicenti, the founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a non-violent group of mothers protesting the disappearance of their children. Neither she, nor any of the other early members of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo kidnapped by Astiz on the same night, were ever seen again. While Astiz kidnapped hundreds of people during 1976 and 1977, it was his kidnap and mistreatment of three foreigners that was later to cause him minor inconvenience as a prisoner of war.

On the 27 January 1977 Dagmar Ingrid Hagelin, a 17-year-old girl having Swedish citizenship (although her mother was Argentinian -her surname was Buccicardi- her father was the Swedish citizen Ragnar-Erland Hagelin, who has been tirelessly battling to bring Astiz to justice since the early 80s), was shot and wounded by Astiz while attempting to escape (apparently Astiz mistook her for a Montoneros activist to whom she bore some physical resemblance, an acquaintance to fellow-activist Norma Susana Burgos, Dagmar's friend). Witnesses saw her later at the ESMA torture center and alleged that Alfredo Astiz was in charge of her interrogation. According to the Argentine Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs tasked to follow up Swedish complaints at the time of Hagelin's shooting and abduction, Captain Jorge Eduardo Acosta, the commander of GT332, stated that "letting her free is out of the question, we must not give in to public opinion. We must appear strong" -apparently due to the seriousness of the injuries caused by Dagmar's shooting that had rendered her paralyzed, also affecting her cognitive abilities. Inés Carazzo, then a detainee enslaved and regularly raped by Captain Antonio Pernias, another GT332 officer, claims Acosta ordered that Hagelin be put to death in a "death flight". Hagelin joined the ranks of the "disappeared" and is thought to have been killed and cremated at the ESMA. There is no direct evidence that Alfredo Astiz had any part in the affair after shooting and kidnapping Hagelin, but there is also no evidence of who killed her, who interrogated her or even if she was interrogated. Due to the very nature of "disappearances" cases, such evidences are notoriously hard to find, and explain why Astiz is charged of only a few of the crimes he is suspected of having carried out.

Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet, two French nuns, were members of a "desaparecidos" support group infiltrated by Astiz. A fake photo aimed at showing that they had been kidnapped by the Peronist letfist group Montoneros was leaked to the graphic media before their assassination. He kidnapped them in December 1977 and was witnessed torturing them by beating them, immersing them in water and applying electrified cattle prods to their breasts and into their genitals and mouths. Domon's body and those of the loved ones of the people the nuns were trying to console have never been found. Duquet's body was identified (along with that of Azucena Villaflor) by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (also known by their finding and identification of Che Guevara's corpse in Bolivia) in August 2005. ^[1]

[edit] Falklands War

Lieutenant Commander Alfredo Astiz commanded the fifteen tactical divers (frogmen) who carried out the first act of aggression of the Falklands War. On 19 March 1982 they landed on South Georgia, concealed among workers of Argentine scrap metal dealer Constantino Davidoff. Officially they were there to scrap three derelict whaling stations at Leith which had been purchased by their "employer" in 1979. Instead they dressed up in uniform and raised the Argentine flag in full view of a British Antarctic Survey party.

The next day, March 20, the local head of the British Antarctic Survey handed Astiz a note transcribed from a radio message by the Governor or the Falklands asking him to take down his flag and leave. Astiz took down the flag but did not leave. Later that day, HMS Endurance, the Royal Navy's ice patrol ship, was dispatched from Port Stanley on the Falklands to Grytviken, the main British Antarctic Survey base on South Georgia, with 22 Royal Marines tasked to evict him. They arrived on 23 March, hours before a number of Argentine marines landed near Grytviken. More Argentine marines turned up over the following days and there was an armed clash at Grytviken resulting in the Royal Marines surrendering and their eventual repatriation to the UK. Astiz, a junior officer, was not in command of this operation and neither he nor his frogmen were involved in either this or later fighting.

After a number of disasters due to poor weather and equipment on the 21 April and 22 April, a force of Royal Marines with good naval gunfire support forced the capitulation of the Argentine garrison at Grytviken on 23 April. TV crews missed the signing of the surrender document by the Argentine commander because it occurred so rapidly after the end of the fighting, but Astiz insisted on signing a surrender document for himself and his small band even though they were covered by the surrender of his commanding officer. The face and name of Alfredo Astiz was, incorrectly, splashed over the world media as the commander of the garrison on South Georgia. This publicity led to an erroneous Rambo-like image but soon caused problems for Astiz.

[edit] Prisoners of war

Soon after the British recapture of South Georgia Nicanor Costa Mendez, the Argentine Foreign Minister, stated that Argentina was technically in a state of war with the UK. At about the same time an Argentine prisoner was shot dead by a Royal Marine who mistakenly thought he was trying to scuttle a captured submarine. The UK informed Argentina, through Brazilian diplomats, that a board of inquiry would be convened under the provisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. The next day the UK claimed the Argentine prisoners were not prisoners of war because they were taken before Argentina declared hostilities. Six days later they changed their mind. In a 1983 article ^[2], Meyer opines that this was because the UK had already implied the Argentine detainees were prisoners of war by applying provisions of the Geneva Conventions. It was justified by the reference in the common articles to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 to their applicability to "declared war or any other armed conflict" between signatories.

About three weeks after they were captured the UK announced it would repatriate all 151 soldiers and 39 civilians, five of whom were not Argentine citizens, held in detention on South Georgia. The wide publicity surrounding the surrender of Astiz had already prompted first the Swedish and then the French to make the UK aware that Astiz was accused of criminal acts against their nationals. As they were being shipped to Ascension Island to be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and flown home, Sweden asked to question Astiz. Soon after the French government asked that Astiz be held while they sort legal remedies for the "disappearances" of the nuns. Both countries stated that they had eyewitnesses for the "disappearances." The UK initially responded that concerned parties should talk to the ICRC as they would be handing Astiz to them. However, the ICRC steadfastly refused the countries' requests to talk to Astiz should he be handed into their custody. Both nations stepped up diplomatic pressure on the United Kingdom not to hand him over to the ICRC. The UK decided to send home the 189 other detainees, "as an act of compassion," while Astiz was to be held until "the end of the belligerancy", initially on Ascension.

[edit] Repatriation

Two weeks later, under pressure from public opinion at home and the French and Swedish governments, the UK decided to buy time by putting Astiz on a boat from Ascension to the UK. While Astiz was in transit the UK announced he would be made available for interview by representatives of the French and Swedish governments. Soon after the Argentine government made veiled threats against the welfare of three UK journalists they had arrested as spies and linked their release to that of Astiz. The questioning went ahead in June but was performed by the Detective Chief Superintendent of the Sussex Constabulary. Both times he was questioned he kept silent. A detailed report was prepared and given to the Swedish and French governments, but was probably not informative, as Astiz said nothing during the questioning. Astiz was repatriated to Argentina on 10 June 1982, just before the start of the battle for Port Stanley and the Argentine capitulation on the 14th.

The UK government had chosen to read the Third Geneva Convention as protecting Astiz from criminal prosecution in the UK or extradition. Meyer argues that this was an incorrect reading but was justified at the time by four points. Astiz was in protective custody because of special circumstances i.e. surrendering during war. The Geneva Conventions exhort custodial powers to leniency. Astiz was accused of crimes — kidnapping, wounding and torture — which were illegal in Argentina and he could, in theory, be prosecuted there. In the end Meyer argues that nothing in the Geneva Conventions themselves expressly prohibited the prosecution or extradition of Astiz. However, the extradition treaties between the UK and both Sweden and France referred only to crimes committed within the territory of the requesting state and crimes against international law. But Astiz was accused of crimes against the citizens of these states in Argentina, which were not, at the time, crimes under international law.

On the other hand, criminal prosecution within the UK was ruled out during his detention because Astiz committed no crimes against British subjects, their possessions or the British State.

Meyer argues that victims of Astiz, or their representatives, may have been successful in securing damages from him if they had brought a civil action while he was in the UK. As with criminal prosecution there is nothing in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 removing the civil liability of prisoners of war for actions committed prior to capture. A British court has jurisdiction over a foreign tort whenever the defendant is in the UK if the alleged act would have been actionable as a tort if committed in Britain and it was an offence under the laws of the foreign country. Torture and kidnap by government officials is actionable as a tort if committed in England (it has been concerning Northern Ireland conflicts). Proving that it was an offence under the laws of Argentina is more difficult. English courts assume that the authorised actions of officials of a foreign government within its sovereign territory are not actionable within their jurisdiction unless those actions are outside the scope of the powers of the government. Since torture is expressly forbidden in the Argentine constitution there is a good argument that Astiz was acting outside his powers as an agent of the Argentine government in torturing Alice Dolmon and Leonie Duquet. Although there were witnesses prepared to testify that they had seen Astiz torture Alice Dolmon and Leonie Duquet this approach did not seem to have been thought of in time and no such case was brought.

[edit] Immunity/convictions

On 16 March 1990, Alfredo Astiz was convicted and sentenced in absentia by the French Assise Court to life imprisonment for his role in the torture and disappearance of the two French nuns, Alice Dolmon and Leonie Duquet. French law allows trials of foreigners, including in absentia, accused of breaking French laws in other jurisdictions if the crimes are committed against French nationals.

Astiz has been arrested several times in Argentina since his repatriation after the Falkland War but no prosecution against him has been successful. In 2003, the Argentine Supreme Court declared anticonstitutional the amnesty laws voted during the transition to democracy (Ley de Obediencia Debida and Ley de Punto Final). Pursuits against Astiz have therefore been enacted, while France is still waiting for his extradition.

However, in more than one occasion he was recognized and promptly attacked by frustrated civilians (a famous assault took place in Bariloche in the mid-90s). In all such occasions he displayed the same kind of courage as throughout his military career -e.g. in the Bariloche attack a public servant punched his false teeth flying.

Along with Luis Maria Mendia, former chief of naval operations in 1976-77, he testified in January 2007, before the Argentine judges, that a French intelligence "agent," Bertrand de Perseval, had participated in the abduction of the two French nuns. Perseval, who lives today in Thailand, denied any links with the abduction, but did admit being a former member of the OAS, and having escaped for Argentina after the March 1962 Evian Accords putting an end to the Algerian War (1954-62). French intelligence agents have long been suspected of having trained their Argentine counterparts in "counter-insurgency" technics (involving massive use of torture, as experimented during the Algerian War). Referring to Marie Monique Robin's film documentary titled The Death Squads - the French School (Les escadrons de la mort - l'école française), which demonstrated that the French intelligence services had trained Argentine counterparts in counter-insurgency technics, Luis Maria Mendia asked before the Argentine Court that former French president, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, former French premier Pierre Messmer, former French embassador to Buenos Aires Françoise de la Gosse, and all officials in place in the French embassy in Buenos Aires between 1976 and 1983 be convoked before the court ^[3]. Besides this "French connection," he has also charged former head of state Isabel Peron and former ministers Carlos Ruckauf and Antonio Cafiero, whom had signed the "anti-subversion decrees" before Videla's 1976 coup d'état. According to ESMA survivor Graciela Dalo, this is another tactic which pretends that these crimes were legitime as the 1987 Obediencia Debida Act claimed them to be (in a theory recalling Adolf Eichmann's defense at his trial in Jerusalem) and that they also obeyed to Isabel Peron's "anti-subversion decrees" (which, if true, would give them a formal appearance of legality, despite torture being forbidden by the Argentine Constitution) ^[4]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Arrest
• Facing trial in Argentine to escape French justice
• Site on French victims of Alfredo Astiz (video in french)

[edit] Further reading

• Horacio Verbitsky. 1996. "The Flight: Confessions of an Argentine Dirty Warrior." New York: New Press. ISBN 1-56584-009-7.
• Meyer, "Liability of Prisoners of War for Offences committed prior to Capture: the Astiz Affair", International Comparative Law Quarterly, Vol. 1983, pp. 949-980.