* All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."
The BBC News online today reported that the last military ruler of Argentina, Reynaldo Bignone, and five other retired generals are now on trial. The trial is expected to last at least until February, 2010.
The men are charged in connection with the alleged kidnapping, torture and disappearance of 56 opponents of the military government in the late 1970s.Obviously, torture and disappearances do not constitute "acting in a spirit of brotherhood." Nor do so many other instances over these last 30 years; the United States' "School of the Americas" is said to have taught torture methods to representatives of governments throughout South America.; From a Wikipedia article about those years in Argentina, "This generalization of state terror tactics has been explained in part by the information received by the Argentine militaries in the infamous School of Americas and also by French instructors from the secret services, who taught them "counter-insurgency" tactics first experimented during the Algerian War (1954-62)."
The abuses are alleged to have taken place at the Campo de Mayo base on the outskirts of the capital, Buenos Aires.
Human rights groups say up to 30,000 people were killed or disappeared in Argentina between 1976 and 1983.
Imagine a world in which each child born is welcomed, loved, sheltered and nurtured into full adulthood, educated to make her or his unique contribution to the world. Imagine a world in which no person is subjected to inhuman treatment, to torture, to being 'disappeared' or to being killed. May it be so.
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