Admiral Emilio Massera, formerly of the Junta that has governed Argentina since March, 1976, has expressed the belief that imprisoned Jewish journalist Jacobo Timerman will soon be released and permitted to leave Argentina. Timerman is presently under house arrest, Massera said, although the Argentine Supreme Court cleared him of any crime two months ago.
Massera, an influential figure in Argentine political life and chief of the Navy until recently, was a guest of honor last Friday at a reception given here by the American Jewish Committee, attended by various Jewish leaders. Answering questions about the relations between Argentina’s Jewish community and the Junta, Massera said the Timerman affair by no means could be interpreted as indicating anti-Semitic feelings on the part of the Argentine government.
“The arrest of Timerman was not an anti-Semitic act on the part of the Junta,” he stressed. He explained that Timerman’s connections with the left “created problems and put him in a vulnerable position with the military government of Argentina” which declared an all-out war against the left in that country.
Timerman, 55, was the editor and publisher of the newspaper La Opinion until his arrest on the night of April 15, 1977 by army officers in plainclothes armed with submachineguns. The next day the army announced that Timerman was arrested for “economic crimes.” Last July the Argentine Supreme Court ruled that there is no legal ground for holding Timerman any longer. But until today, two months after the Supreme Court’s ruling, Timerman is still under arrest.
NO BASIS FOR CHARGE OF ANTI-SEMITISM
Asked to respond to the charge that the present Argentine regime is anti-Semitic because Jews are leading members of leftist guerrilla movements in Argentina, Massera said that this theory has no ground in reality. He said that at no time were leftist terrorists represented by one ethnic group, and if any ethnic group was to be pointed out in the Argentine terrorist left it is the Catholic group which, Massera said, had originally planted the seeds of the present guerrilla left.
Massera repeated several times during the Friday reception that Timerman’s arrest should not be seen as an anti-Semitic move on the part of the Junta. Massera also added that his position on the Timerman affair is “very clear and different than the rest of the Junta.”
Richard Maass, president of the AJCommittee, said in his welcoming remarks that Massera “has always been close to the Jewish community and strongly condemned the anti-Semitic events that took place in Argentina in recent years. He was particularly active in urging the freedom of Jacobo Timerman, asking his complete release in opposition to the attitude of many members of the army and air force.”
Massera, who said he has an invitation to visit Israel, recently visited Saudi Arabia. He said his impression was that the Saudi government is more concerned with the problems it might face from the Palestinians than from the Jews.
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