MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

March 24, “a day of memory, justice and truth”

The official Argentine calendar has incorporated March 24 as a “National Day of memory, truth and justice”, in coincidence with the 30th anniversary of the military coup that inaugurated one of the bloodiest dictatorships the country has known in many decades.

The initiative from President Kirchner's administration was voted Thursday in Congress and is intended to become a day of reflection, recalling the toll of almost 30.000 Argentines disappeared during the 1976/83 iron fisted military regime.

Congressman Agustin Rossi one of the sponsors of the bill said that March 24th will be "fittingly" observed and will not be transferred to a Monday or Friday to make for long weekends.

On March 24, 1976 a military Junta with minimal resistance ousted caretaker President Isabel Peron who had succeeded her husband strongman Juan Domingo Peron when he died in July 1974.

The seven years military rule became famous for its notorious systematic termination of thousands of suspected left wing militants, human rights abuses and the South Atlantic conflict which ended in defeat and complete disaster.

However human rights activists were not enthusiastic about the initiative. Adolfo Perez Esquivel, who won the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize for his resistance to the military regime argued that "days off usually are to celebrate and on March 24th there's nothing to celebrate, much on the contrary".

He also pointed out that this year the coup's 30th anniversary is on a Friday.

"This date should not have its meaning altered. It can't be reduced to just a long weekend" stressed the human rights group Memory, Truth and Justice.

The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo supported the idea of incorporating March 24th to the calendar as national holiday, as long as it's commemorated on that date and not moved for long weekends. "It's a day of memory and reflection".

Argentina's Human Rights Secretary Eduardo Luis Duhalde said commemoration of March 24 is intended "to become a day of memory for Argentines, reflecting on what happened during those long dark dictatorial nights".