Ex-Argentine Officer Tells Of Mass Murder

A former Argentine naval officer who admitted throwing dissidents from airplanes recounted Wednesday how a naval school was transformed into a factory of death during his country’s “dirty war.”

The account by former Lt. Commander Adolfo Scilingo during a six-hour session before a Spanish judge marked the first time a member of Argentina’s military who participated in the killings has provided details in any court about the mass murder.

The testimony came before a judge investigating the disappearances of 600 Spaniards in the 1976-1983 dirty war. At least 9,000 people were kidnapped, tortured and never seen again during the Argentine military’s war on leftist dissidents.

Spanish law allows the prosecution of genocide no matter where it is committed and regardless of the nationality of the accused.

The court session was closed to the public. But one of Scilingo’s lawyers, Armando Gallo, provided some details in an interview.

Scilingo described seeing prisoners “hooded, with their feet chained and hands tied” in the basement of the Argentine navy’s mechanical school, one of several killing centers.

Scilingo also recounted seeing several pregnant women in utter despair in the school, referring to the military’s policy of holding the women until they delivered, then killing them and giving their babies up for adoption to military couples.