NEWS STORY: NCC launches new campaign on behalf of Latin America’s `disappeared’

c. 1999 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ Under the South American military dictatorships that flourished in the 1970s, tens of thousands of people vanished without a trace. Across Argentina, Chile and Uruguay men, women and children were snatched from streets in broad daylight or from beds at night never to be seen again. Now, […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ Under the South American military dictatorships that flourished in the 1970s, tens of thousands of people vanished without a trace. Across Argentina, Chile and Uruguay men, women and children were snatched from streets in broad daylight or from beds at night never to be seen again.

Now, 25 years later, the dictators are gone but the questions remain: What happened to the estimated 25,000 people who disappeared? Where are the bodies of those who were massacred? What happened to the hundreds of kidnapped babies who are still alive?


The civilian governments, looking toward the future and hoping to forget the past, have been reluctant to help find the remains of the missing, locate children living under new identities, or bring to justice those responsible for the atrocities. Political leaders argue it is time to close that unpleasant chapter of history.

But for the family members of the disappeared, or”desaparecidos,”the pain of the past endures.”Until they know the truth of what happened they won’t be able to close that chapter, especially for the relatives who want the remains of their loved ones,”said the Rev. Oscar Bolioli, director of the Latin American and Caribbean office of the National Council of Churches.

The NCC, which has been active in human rights issues in South America for decades, has embarked on a campaign both here and abroad aimed at re-energizing this quarter-century quest for truth and justice.”We want to give new impulse to the search for the disappeared,”said Bolioli, one of a five-member NCC delegation recently returned from South America.

During the weeklong trip, members met with relatives of the missing, religious leaders and political candidates. On their return, the NCC immediately asked President Clinton to open CIA files from the period they think may provide information on the missing.”We believe with these papers we can help build connections, find the circumstances and then get leads to what happened,”said Bolioli. But he concedes many of the bodies may never be found. One method of killing employed in both Argentina and Chile was to take victims from prison camps by helicopter and toss them in the ocean, he said.”The question today is of identification: Who were they and who did it?”Bolioli said.

The visit also aimed to boost the spirits of the relatives’ groups who have fought tirelessly to find out what became of their family members and, in the cases of children who are still alive, locate them and restore their identities.

The delegation’s visit comes amid changing political climates in the three countries. It is an election year, and candidates are being urged to revive efforts to bring those responsible to justice and to open or resume investigations into the whereabouts of the missing.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Chile, where 4,000 people disappeared or were killed during the 17-year military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Since his arrest last year, 25 officers have been arrested on charges of murder, torture and kidnapping. Meanwhile, a hearing to determine whether Pinochet will be extradited to Spain has just closed in London. Prosecutors have said the 35 torture charges against him are the most serious allegations ever to come before English criminal courts.


In Uruguay, where about 120 people disappeared, and Argentina, where an estimated 20,000 people vanished or were killed, leaders have been slower to respond, the NCC officials said.”It ranges from `We won’t deal with it at all,’ to `We’ll deal with it under the table,'”said the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, the NCC general secretary.

For most people the delegation met with, she said, the feeling is”dead is dead,”but the reality, like the world saw in South Africa, was”if you don’t tell the truth, there will never be reconciliation.” In Argentina, the delegation met with members of two groups _ the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo _ which have been waging a persistent but peaceful battle in the streets and halls of government with little success. Military leaders convicted and jailed under a”truth commission”in the 1980s were later pardoned by President Carlos Menem.

While the courts and legislative bodies may be dragging their heels, scientific advances are providing some answers for the families of the missing. Many children of the disappeared who were babies at the time, or born to mothers in captivity, were taken by military officers and raised as their own under new identities.

DNA technology has been used to identify some 64 of those children so far, and DNA from living family members is being stored in a genetic data bank to ensure the quest for the estimated 400 other surviving children continues when they are gone.

Campbell said the NCC will continue to”press the president”to open the CIA files, a request she thinks is a reasonable one.”It’s been done in other cases,” she said. “It’s not political, and enough time has passed.” She said despite the passage of time, it’s important to keep the issue alive in the eyes of the world to ensure these kinds of mass tortures and executions never happen again.”It’s never again,”said Campbell.”No one understands this like Jewish people: Human behavior can be dangerous.” The only way for these countries to move forward is to face the past, Bolioli said.”We want to help the process so they can look to the future, or else everyone is living without knowing,”he said.”We saw what happened in Europe, and that was 50 years ago.” DEA END WORDEN

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!