Klarsfeld in Argentina to Protest Against Repression, Anti-semitism

Beale Klarsfeld, the anti-Nazi activist, left for Argentina today and will demonstrate outside the Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires tomorrow against repressive measures by the regime and “manifestations of anti-Semitism.”

Mrs. Klarsfeld’s departure was announced by Jean-Pierre Bloch, president of the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICA) who released the text of the protest message she will attempt to deliver to the Argentine government, the police and the local press. The message said that she comes to Argentina in the name of LICA ? arouse public opinion against the regime’s “oppressive methods and macabre record.” According to Bloch she will go to Montevideo, Uruguay for the same purpose after completing her mission in Argentina.

Klarsfeld’s message accuses the Argentine regime of torture and arbitrary imprisonment of its political opponents. “The victims include many simple suspects, innocents, and numerous people who intervene for humanitarian reasons. In addition, we witness the manifestation of anti-Semitism along with the arrests and assassinations aimed at a growing number of Jews,” the message says.

It charges that “these outrages have been going on for more than a year, victimizing the militants of the opposition, their families and their friends as well as numerous political refugees.” Klarsfeld argues that even if some opponents of the regime resort to violence, “it is inadmissible for a member state of the United Nations to unleash such a campaign of repressive violence, infinitely more far-reaching and more cruel.”