Argentina tries ex-chaplain on 'dirty war' crimes
(Updates with chaplain declining to testify, comments by Argentine president)
By Hilary Burke
LA PLATA, Argentina, July 5 (Reuters) - A former police chaplain accused of involvement in torture, kidnapping and murder during Argentina's "dirty war" declined to testify on Thursday as he went on trial in the first case linking a clergyman to rights abuses.
Roman Catholic priest Christian Von Wernich tended to the notorious Buenos Aires provincial police force at a time when leftist dissidents of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship were routinely abducted, maimed and killed.
Rights activists accuse him of visiting clandestine detention centers and pressuring torture victims to talk.
"The case of Von Wernich is an extreme. There is a point at which it's impossible to distinguish the priest from a cop," said rights activist and journalist Horacio Verbitsky, who recently wrote a book about the Catholic Church's role during the dictatorship.
Church officials declined to comment on the trial. It is the first to probe dirty war-era crimes since a former Buenos Aires provincial police commissioner was sentenced to life in prison last September.
That trial was marred by the disappearance of a key witness, Jorge Julio Lopez, who has not been seen since.
Von Wernich, 69, wore a bulletproof vest and his priest's collar. He answered basic questions of the court but rejected an opportunity to make a statement. According to documents read by a court clerk, he has told officials he was unaware that detainees were being tortured or held illegally.
Fearing for the safety of about 120 witnesses expected to testify against Von Wernich, the federal court trying him has installed metal detectors and cameras at the courthouse and set up barricades outside.
COURTHOUSE RALLY
Hundreds of Argentines, many of them from leftist groups, rallied outside the courthouse on Thursday in the city of La Plata, the provincial capital southeast of Buenos Aires.
President Nestor Kirchner persuaded Congress to scrap amnesty laws shielding human rights abusers from prosecution for dictatorship-era crimes, and the Supreme Court ruled similarly in 2005. That paved the way for new and reopened rights investigations.
"This is a very important day for Argentina," Kirchner said in a speech, referring to the trial. He said Von Wernich "had brought dishonor to the Church, to poor people and to human rights."
An estimated 11,000 to 30,000 people died or disappeared in the dirty war purge of leftists and dissidents, which also swept up people without political involvement.
Verbitsky charged that the Von Wernich case was not an aberration, saying the Catholic Church hierarchy supported the military dictatorship and opted to keep silent about the regime's brutality.
He said some Church officials praised the military junta for beating back what he called the communist threat and restoring traditional, Western values.
The Church also set up a committee to meet regularly with the military junta leaders, but it refused to meet with the family members of victims, he added.
"The Catholic Church strives to be a universal institution that is beyond political factions and concerned only about society's well-being. This embracing of the dictatorship clearly contradicts that," Verbitsky said.
By Hilary Burke
LA PLATA, Argentina, July 5 (Reuters) - A former police chaplain accused of involvement in torture, kidnapping and murder during Argentina's "dirty war" declined to testify on Thursday as he went on trial in the first case linking a clergyman to rights abuses.
Roman Catholic priest Christian Von Wernich tended to the notorious Buenos Aires provincial police force at a time when leftist dissidents of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship were routinely abducted, maimed and killed.
Rights activists accuse him of visiting clandestine detention centers and pressuring torture victims to talk.
"The case of Von Wernich is an extreme. There is a point at which it's impossible to distinguish the priest from a cop," said rights activist and journalist Horacio Verbitsky, who recently wrote a book about the Catholic Church's role during the dictatorship.
Church officials declined to comment on the trial. It is the first to probe dirty war-era crimes since a former Buenos Aires provincial police commissioner was sentenced to life in prison last September.
That trial was marred by the disappearance of a key witness, Jorge Julio Lopez, who has not been seen since.
Von Wernich, 69, wore a bulletproof vest and his priest's collar. He answered basic questions of the court but rejected an opportunity to make a statement. According to documents read by a court clerk, he has told officials he was unaware that detainees were being tortured or held illegally.
Fearing for the safety of about 120 witnesses expected to testify against Von Wernich, the federal court trying him has installed metal detectors and cameras at the courthouse and set up barricades outside.
COURTHOUSE RALLY
Hundreds of Argentines, many of them from leftist groups, rallied outside the courthouse on Thursday in the city of La Plata, the provincial capital southeast of Buenos Aires.
President Nestor Kirchner persuaded Congress to scrap amnesty laws shielding human rights abusers from prosecution for dictatorship-era crimes, and the Supreme Court ruled similarly in 2005. That paved the way for new and reopened rights investigations.
"This is a very important day for Argentina," Kirchner said in a speech, referring to the trial. He said Von Wernich "had brought dishonor to the Church, to poor people and to human rights."
An estimated 11,000 to 30,000 people died or disappeared in the dirty war purge of leftists and dissidents, which also swept up people without political involvement.
Verbitsky charged that the Von Wernich case was not an aberration, saying the Catholic Church hierarchy supported the military dictatorship and opted to keep silent about the regime's brutality.
He said some Church officials praised the military junta for beating back what he called the communist threat and restoring traditional, Western values.
The Church also set up a committee to meet regularly with the military junta leaders, but it refused to meet with the family members of victims, he added.
"The Catholic Church strives to be a universal institution that is beyond political factions and concerned only about society's well-being. This embracing of the dictatorship clearly contradicts that," Verbitsky said.
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