From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org
NCC to Bring Three Relatives of Disappeared Persons in
From
CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)
Date
06 Mar 1998 14:33:24
Uruguay to U.S.
The National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Internet: wendym@ncccusa.org
Contact: WASHINGTON, D.C. - Laurie Freeman, WOLA, 202-544-
8045
NEW YORK CITY - Wendy McDowell, NCC, 212-870-2227
NCC3/6/98 FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NCC TO BRING THREE RELATIVES OF DISAPPEARED PERSONS IN
URUGUAY TO U.S.
NOTE: Media opportunities include - WASHINGTON, D.C.: NCC
Latin America Working Group meeting, Mar. 10, 1 p.m. at 100
Maryland Ave., NE, Conference Room 3; NEW YORK CITY: Open
brown bag lunch, March 12, 12-1 p.m. at the Interchurch
Center, 475 Riverside Drive, Room 603. Additional interviews
can be scheduled through the Washington Office on Latin
America (WOLA) and National Council of Churches (NCC)
contacts above.
NEW YORK, Mar. 6 --- Fifteen to twenty-five years after
their loved ones were disappeared by the military regimes in
Uruguay and Argentina, more than 150 families still do not
know their relatives' fate.
Three relatives of the Uruguayan disappeared will bring
their stories and their struggle for truth to the United
States faith and human rights communities in Washington,
D.C., and New York City March 9-13, sponsored by the NCC.
Ms. Hortencia Pereira, Ms. Sabina Arigon and Mr. Javier
Miranda have been pressing the cases of the disappearances of
their relatives and others for several years through their
own government and through international human rights
channels. Ms. Pereira is the wife of a disappeared person,
Ms. Arigon is a daughter and Mr. Miranda is a son and the
lawyer in the relatives' case before the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
Altogether, 156 Uruguayans were disappeared, some in
Argentina and others in Uruguay during the military regime's
1973 to 1985 reign. Thus far, the Government of Uruguay has
not offered an explanation about the fate of the relatives
and, in December 1997, issued a document stating that it
considered the matter closed. The relatives hope to continue
bringing international pressure to bear on their government.
The families wish to find out the truth about what
really happened to their relatives, identify their remains
and arrange for their proper burial. The fact that Uruguayan
law requires that a person who disappears cannot be declared
legally dead for 30 years has created additional hardship
beause the property of the disappeared cannot be claimed.
Several churches, ecumenical organizations and
representatives of the Jewish community have supported the
view that the truth surrounding these disappearances should
be known.
"The delegation will meet with human rights
organizations, State Department representatives, the
Congressional Human Rights Caucus, United Nations staff, and
church leaders in Washington, D.C. and New York City to put
this issue on the table," said the Rev. Oscar Bolioli,
Director of the NCC's Latin America and the Caribbean Office.
"We are purposefully targeting Uruguay because the number of
cases there is proportionally small as compared to other
countries in the region. If we can succeed in bringing
international pressure to bear in Uruguay, then we can work
on Argentina, where 30,000 people were disappeared, and in
Chile, where 12,000 people were disappeared.
-end-
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