wfn.org | Germany's president asked to intervene for Argentine families

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Lutheran church leader wants archives in Germany, Buenos Aires opened

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina/GENEVA, 22 March 1999 (lwi) Visiting president of
the Federal Republic of Germany Roman Herzog, has been asked for a
"personal commitment to make the archives in Buenos Aires or Germany
accessible" to facilitate investigations into human rights violations
against persons of German origin by Argentina's military dictatorship.

The request was made by the president of the Evangelical Church of the
River Plate (IERP), Rev Juan Pedro Schaad, during a meeting the German
statesman held with relatives of people of German origin who disappeared
during Argentina's military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983.

According to an IERP press statement, the Lutheran pastor also requested
the visiting president to clarify whether or not "the German Embassy in
Buenos Aires had been in close but dangerous collaboration" with the
military dictatorship.

Schaad, who was the only religious representative present during an
interview Mr. Herzog held with relatives of the disappeared victims,
stressed in his request that "only the truth makes us free and credible."

The IERP press statement notes that in discussions with the German
president, Schaad expressed the need for a "clean and transparent trial"
which would be very significant for a society, which although living in a
democratic state, suffers from acts of impunity.

Schaad explained to Mr. Herzog that his church has "from the beginning
accompanied family members who were looking for disappeared relatives." He
also gave the visiting German leader a document containing the pastor's
position regarding trials of those who were responsible for disappeared
persons during the military dictatorship.

According to the German Protestant press service, epd, the German
"Coalition against Impunity", says one such case involves Elisabeth
Kasemann, the daughter of the late Protestant theologian Prof. Ernst
Kasemann, who was abducted from her apartment in Buenos Aires in March
1977, then tortured and killed in May of the same year.

The "Coalition against Impunity" has appealed to the German president to
urge that human rights violations against Germans during the Argentinean
dictatorship be investigated. He was also asked to insist on an
investigation of the role of the German embassy in Buenos Aires and the
German Foreign Office during the military dictatorship.

The latter request has to do with recent disclosures concerning an
Argentinean officer, who during the dictatorship was the liaison person
between the German embassy and the Argentinean government.  Under the name
"Major Peirano" he met with relatives of disappeared Germans but misused
their confidences to pass on information to the military, according to epd.

The IERP is a member church of the Lutheran World Federation. With 47,000
members, it has congregations not only in Argentina but also in Paraguay
and Uruguay.

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/