The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith today called Argentina’s partial lifting of the veil of secrecy on the fate of thousands of “disappeared” in that country “a significant and promising development” but said much more should be done quickly “to relieve the agony of uncertainty” felt by the families of the rest.
The ADL’s comment came in response to the first public disclosure by the Argentine government of the identity of individuals previously listed as “disappeared.” A list of 76 names was published by an Argentine judge after the discovery in the past few months of more than 1,500 bodies in unmarked graves throughout Argentina. Among them were 16 Argentines carried on lists of “disappeared persons maintained by the ADL’s Argentine Prisoner-Project.
In a letter to Argentina’s Ambassador to the U.S., Lucio Garcia del Solar, Rabbi Morton Rosenthal, director of ADL’s Latin American Affairs Department, pointed out that the list barely skimmed the surface of the problem of what happened to the thousands of missing people in that country.
16 IDENTIFIED AS DEAD
The 16 formerly listed as “disappeared” by ADL and now identified as dead, were: Victor Jose Lowe, Ruben Vicente Hoffman, Carlos Alberto Rodecoff, Anastasio Antonio Simion, Estela Gacche de Adjiman, Mariano Hector Krathaner, Nora Beatriz Salvarezza de Jeifetz, Carlos Gabriel Federico Jeifetz, Jorge Daniel Fukman, Guillermo Adrian Khun, Ruben Adrian Benshoam, Horacio Alberto Rubino, Anna Maria Castillo de Rubino, Hugo Daniel Strejilevich, Mario Lerner and Mabel Rita Passut.
10 HAVE BEEN LIBERATED
Rosenthal said that 10 other individuals, whose release has been sought by ADL’s Prisoner Project, have been liberated: Juan Alberto Epstein, Jorge Enrique Arrietta, Alberto Domingo Colaski, Jorge Alberto Kerz, Abraham Elias Musse, Jose Martin Niztzchmann, Ricardo Daniel Rodschild, Daniel Alberto Abott, Juan Carlos Finkelstein and Juan Mauricio Berger.
In addition, five who had been on parole have been released unconditionally: Eduardo Oscar Schaposnik, Silvia Viviana Zustovich, Jorge Ernes to Kondratzky, Juan Eduardo Lenscak and Victor Fransisco Nadalich.
Rosen that said that efforts are continuing to obtain information about the missing and release from prison of innocent people, including many Jews. He recommended that letters be written to United States Senators and Representatives as well as to Ambassador Lucio Garcia del Solar, Argentine Embassy, 1600 New Hampshire Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20009.
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