Argentine Military Admits To Atrocities

The air force joined the army Saturday in acknowledging atrocities were committed during the “dirty war” of the 1970s, and a Roman Catholic bishop begged forgiveness for the church’s complicity.

President Carlos Menem urged surviving members of guerilla groups to confess their own abuses even as Brig. Gen. Juan Paulik, air force chief of staff, said the military actions were more reprehensible.

“The use of illegal methods by the state is even less justifiable considering that a judicial structure was available for use in eliminating terrorism,” Paulik said in Saturday’s La Nacion newspaper.

On Tuesday, the army chief of staff ended almost two decades of official silence and admitted that the military tortured and killed its adversaries during the “dirty war.” The navy has indicated it, too, will issue a statement on its actions.

The three armed forces seized power together in 1976, fighting terrorists who sought to destabilize the country with murders, bombings and kidnappings. Officially, more than 9,000 people were arrested and disappeared. Rights groups claim more than 30,000 people died.

In a statement Saturday, Roman Catholic Bishop Jorge Novak asked “forgiveness from God and society” for the church’s “insensitivity, cowardliness and our omissions and our complicity” during the “dirty war.” One of the officers who admitted to the airplane trips said military chaplains often comforted participating officers.