Argentine foreign minister, former prisoner of dictatorship, describes crimes against humanity

Argentine minister testifies against dictatorship

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina’s foreign minister testified Tuesday as a witness in a trial involving crimes against humanity inside a prison where he and other political prisoners were held during the military dictatorship.

Jorge Taiana, who spent nearly three years in the Unit 9 prison in the provincial capital of La Plata, described mistreatment in the prison, including once on Dec. 13, 1976, when “they made us come out of our cells with our heads down and our hands behind us, to shouts and blows.”

“They took us to a ceremonial room, took away all our clothes. It was a violent imposition — there were blows,” he told a panel of judges trying 14 former prison officials accused of various crimes during the 1976-1983 dictatorship. “I saw it all.”

Other political prisoners held in the Unit 9 prison included prominent human rights lawyer Carlos Slepoy and Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel. According to official figures, 13,000 people were killed by the dictatorship, although human rights groups believe as many as 30,000 died.

Speaking later to reporters, Taiana said that “to participate in a trial as a witness, and judge those responsible for violations of human rights, is a contribution that all of us must do so that we have justice and truth in Argentina.”

The defendants include the former director of the prison, Elbio Abel Dupuy, who is accused of more than 50 cases of torture, five murders and other crimes.

Taiana was the son of the personal doctor of Argentine strongman Juan Domingo Peron and a militant in the Peron party as a young man. That alone made him a target when the dictatorship sought to eliminate political opponents, but Taiana also co-founded the Shirtless Ones, an activist group with ties to the militant leftist Montonero guerrillas, who also were responsible for violence in the early 1970s.