MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Galtieri May Face Trial on Human Rights. British Media Report on Argentine Court Ruling

Former President and Army Chief Leopoldo Galtieri may face trial over human rights violations during Argentina's internal “Dirty War”, according to a British press report.

As many as 20-thousand Argentines are believed to have been kidnapped, tortured and murdered under military rule between 1976 and 1983, when General Galtieri held several senior army commands and finally the presidency.

A Sunday Times report says that an Argentine judge considering alleged human rights abuses by the military has cleared the way for the prosecution of the former military dictator and up to 1,200 other officers by declaring unconstitutional two amnesty laws which have previously protected them.

The so-called full stop and due obedience laws were passed in 1996 and 1987 by the weak and fairly new democratic government under pressure from the military. Human rights groups are quoted as saying they will press for Galtieri to be tried for his alleged implication in the disappearance of thousands of victims held in concentration camps.

Galtieri, who launched the 1982 Falklands invasion in 1982 when he was President and Army Chief, was jailed for 12 years in 1986 for mishandling the Falklands War but was cleared of human rights violations inside Argentina. He was granted a pardon after three years and lives quietly in a Buenos Aires suburb, as do his 1982 junta colleagues, Admiral Jorge Anaya and former Air Force Chief Brigadier Lami Doza.

A spokesman for Argentina's Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, Horacio Ravena, says Galtieri could now be dragged back into court to face charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. In 1986 he was cleared of only 11 abductions. He cannot be tried a second time for those crimes but, Ravena is quoted as saying, "the door has been opened for him to face trial for many of the other thousands of disappearances".

Margaret Thatcher's Belgrano Accuser Under Threat

Human rights groups say they intend to target other officers including Jorge Olivera, a former captain, accused over the rape and disappearance of Marie-Anne Erize, a Franco-Argentine fashion model in 1976. Olivera, who later became a criminal lawyer, unsuccessfully sought to win damages against Britain in the European Court of Human Rights last year over the sinking of the cruiser Belgrano and the drowning of many of her crew. He demanded that Margaret Thatcher, who ordered the