Retired Argentine General Held in ‘Dirty War’ Inquiry

BUENOS AIRES —  A retired Argentine army general was detained Thursday as part of a widening investigation into the theft of babies from women held in secret torture chambers during this country’s dictatorship.

Former Gen. Juan Bautista Sasiain became the 11th officer to be detained in the investigation into one of the most horrific chapters of Argentina’s 1976-83 military rule.

Sasiain headed an army brigade in the “dirty war” against leftist guerrillas and suspected sympathizers. His command included clandestine prison camps in and around Buenos Aires, such as the infamous “Pozo de Banfield” and “La Cacha.”

An aide to federal Judge Adolfo Bagnasco, one of the judges investigating the fate of about 200 stolen babies, said that, after four hours’ questioning, Sasiain was charged with responsibility for the theft of 10 babies and placed under confinement in a paramilitary police barracks.

Congressman Ramon Torres Molina, a lawyer representing the human rights group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo in the case, said Sasiain was not suspected of carrying out the kidnappings himself, “but by simple chain of command, he is responsible for the crimes being investigated.”

The members of the grandmothers group all lost children during the dirty war. An estimated 30,000 people died or “disappeared” during the regime’s reign of terror. Many were buried in mass graves or thrown alive from planes into the sea.

The grandmothers group is dedicated to finding the children of sons and daughters murdered by the military. So far, group members have traced 66 victims and reunited some with surviving relatives.

At the grandmothers’ urging, federal courts are trying to establish whether junta leaders ordered the systematic theft of babies from their leftist foes.

These crimes are not covered by the amnesties of the 1980s that allowed all the dirty war criminals to walk free, after they were convicted in trials that began in 1985.

Bagnasco has detained 10 other dirty war officers, including former dictators Jorge Rafael Videla and Reynaldo Bignone and former navy chief Emilio Massera.

All but two are under house arrest because they are in their 70s. An aide to Bagnasco said Sasiain, 73, also was likely to be allowed home because of his age.

Most of the detained officers are on the list of 98 dirty war suspects wanted for extradition by the Spanish judge who tried to have Chilean ex-dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet extradited from Britain.

Torres Molina, who was himself held by the juntas, said it would take a long time for the baby thefts to come to trial “because they are investigating the whole chain of command.”