MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pope meets relatives of AMIA bombing victims same day as the massive 'silent march' for Nisman

The Argentine pope, Burstein added, told the AMIA relatives he would do “everything possible” to help them.

A group of relatives of the Buenos Aires 1994 AMIA bombing victims attended a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Wednesday, requesting the pontiff’s intervention to have Iran put the citizens of that country allegedly involved in the deadly attack at the disposal of justices in Argentina.

 “We asked him to use his good offices to intercede before Iran to put at disposal the citizens required by the (Argentine) Justice,” member of the 18J organization Sergio Burstein said in statements to media, explaining the relatives of the victims of the 18 July 1994 bombing also requested Francis his help to have ex Israeli ambassador to Argentina Itzhak Aviran testify in the case.

Last year Itzhak said he knew the identity of those committing the massacre of the AMIA Jewish center that killed 85 people. “Most of those responsible for the attack against the AMIA are already on the other side and we (the Israeli) did that,” the diplomat had said.

The Argentine pope, Burstein added, told the AMIA relatives he would do “everything possible” to help them.

“He told us 'pray for me' and we asked him to pray for us today, that we need calm, peace and respect for the men and the dead that are being used,” Sergio Burstein added, pointing out they found in Francis “the best of good intentions and that caress in the soul we all need.”

“The message of the pope was for all Argentines, that we pray for him and that he will pray for us. We came (to the Vatican) neither in favor or against anybody,” he explained. In Buenos Aires on Wednesday almost 400.000 people turned to the streets to for a silence march marking a month since the death of AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman.

According to Burstein, the ex Argentine cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio said “not a word about the march” called for Wednesday by a group of Nisman fellow prosecutors. Still, the 18J member expressed his surprise the audience was scheduled the same day that the so called “18F” demonstration was taking place.

“It particularly drove our attention that we were called for today. We requested the interview eight days ago. Yesterday, very early in the morning, Lower House chairman Julian Dominguez, who had met with Francis, and told us he (the pope) was going to tell us to go.”

“A few instants later, I got a phone call from the embassy (of Argentina to the Vatican) and that the meeting was confirmed for the 18th,” Burstein explained.

“We were surprised and here we are. We are fully satisfied. We found nothing more nor nothing less than we expected (to find): the world of Father Jorge that he would do everything possible so that not only the dead, the murdered can rest in peace but also the whole Argentine society.”

The 18J Survivors, Relatives and Friends of the Victims of the AMIA Attack were also received by the pontiff on July 5, 2013.