Documents show US support for ‘dirty war’

LEADERS of Argentina’s military dictatorship believed Washington was willing to overlook the junta’s bloody efforts to stamp out political dissent, newly declassified US documents show.

In a telegram signed by then-US Ambassador Robert Hill, a top Argentine official returned to Buenos Aires following a 1976 visit to Washington "convinced there is no problem with the US government over the issue of human rights".

Mr Hill said the comments by Argentine foreign minister Admiral Guzzetti had come after meetings with then US Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger during a two-week visit to the UN and Washington.

"Guzzetti went to the US fully expecting to hear some strong, firm, direct warning of his government's human rights practices, rather than that, he has returned in a state of jubilation," Mr Hill wrote.

"Guzzetti's reaction indicates little reason for concern over the human rights issue." Mr Hill's impressions were contained in a telegram that was one of more than 4,000 documents released by the US State Department this week, and posted on a government website.

The documents reveal information about Argentina's 'dirty war' against suspected leftists during the 1976-83 dictatorship.

During the military's six-year rule, at least 8,900 people disappeared in the junta's systematic crackdown on leftist groups, according to a government report. Human rights groups place the figure at around 30,000.

The cables were released at the urging of human rights groups, Argentine families of the disappeared, and several countries investigating military officers for past abuses.

Some of the documents diplomatic cables and other memoranda from US officials sent from the US embassy in Buenos Aires to Washington give an impression American diplomats believed the government had not strongly stressed that the abuses were cause for concern. William Rogers, who served as under secretary for economic affairs during the Ford administration, said Kissinger repeatedly told Argentine officials its fight against terrorism had to be conducted within the law.

US embassy officials in Buenos Aires diligently tracked the abuses of the military government, frequently offering recommendations that provoked sharp debate in Washington over ways to stop them, experts say.