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Twenty
years since the AMIA bombing in Argentina
by Leila Miller 17 hours ago July,17 2014
A crowd examines the rubble from the 1994 bombing
In a plaza across the street from the Argentine Supreme Court here in
Buenos Aires, Sofía Tarlovsky points to two names inscribed on a
sundial-shaped memorial, both of them her former kindergarten students.
Instead of minute marks, the clock marks time with wooden sticks carved
with names and ages that jut out vertically from the circular marble base,
which bears the quote in Spanish and Hebrew: "Justicia Justicia
Perseguirás," "Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof" (justice, justice,
you will seek). A blank space at the 9:53 spot marks the time on the
morning of July 18, 1994, that a van carrying explosives rammed into the
institutional headquarters of the Jewish community of Argentina - the AMIA
building - killing 85 people and injuring more than 300.
Every Monday since the attack, now exactly 20 years ago, Tarlovsky, 82,
and others from an elderly group observe a minute of silence in the plaza,
then shout "Justicia!" at the courthouse, repeating the word
three times before a man blows a shofar.
Despite the two decades that have passed, no one has been convicted for
the AMIA bombing, which occurred two years after another unsolved bombing
of the Israeli Embassy 20 blocks away. That one killed 29 people. But the
memory of those two horrific incidents is still very much alive. As a
result, almost all Jewish institutions in Argentina, home to some 240,000
Jews, have cement barriers at their entrances, and every July 18 thousands
attend a nationally televised memorial in front of the now re-built AMIA
(Argentine-Israelite Mutual Aid Association).
The AMIA investigation has seen many phases, including a confirmed
government cover-up that allegedly invovled Rubén Beraja, the
then-president of the DAIA, Argentina's umbrella Jewish organization.
Today, families of victims are both divided among themselves and at odds
with the Jewish community's leadership.
Asked about the current progress of the investigation, Tarlovsky shook her
head and replied "nada" - nothing.
"I am convinced that this bombing happened because the bombing on the
Israeli embassy wasn't investigated, so the terrorists saw that it would
be easy," Tarlovsky said. "I don't think there will be justice,
especially after 20 years. It's very difficult. It implicates too many
people in power.
"There's a lot of ugliness here," she said of the case.
"It's very sad, very painful."
Jorge Beremblum, 74, was working in the treasurer's office on AMIA's third
floor the morning of the attack; at first he thought the explosion came
from a gas leak. "But it was a momentary feeling, because when we
opened our eyes and saw the enormous amount of dust, we realized that it
was something else," Beremblum said recently, explaining that the
people in the office immediately recalled the attack on the Israeli
embassy. "After the first few seconds, from the way the place looked,
we realized that it was a bomb."
Beremblum was not in the front part of the building, which collapsed
completely. The attack's victims were both Jews and non-Jews, among them a
5-year-old boy walking on the street with his mother, three cousins who
had come to the AMIA to arrange for a relative's funeral and people in the
building next door. In a frantic effort to dig through the ruins for
survivors, volunteers, along with firemen and policemen, struggled to
clear away the debris. In the frenzy, some key pieces of evidence were
tossed into garbage bins, and pieces of the exploded van were lost.
"It was a complete chaos," said Sergio Widder, director of the
Simon Wiesenthal Center's Latin American office. "There were
corridors made by lines of people to make a path for the nurses and
stretchers. There was a multitude of people standing on the debris, and no
one knew how many people were alive under there in conditions to be
rescued. We don't know, and we'll never know."
In his oval-shaped office in the Buenos Aires City Legislature, Jorge
Taiana, foreign minister of Argentina from 2005 to 2010, explained why the
bombing may have occurred. "There were important failures in security
that allowed for the biggest attack against the Jewish community since
World War II," he said, adding hat Argentina is a "relatively
important" country with a very significant Jewish community.
He believes help from a foreign country would have been necessary for the
attack. "Apart from [the bombing] being easy to do, and that it was
an important Jewish community and that this would have an impact, we still
have the question of whether whoever did it had a direct or indirect
connection with a country," he said. "These things are hard to
do from so far away without the direct or indirect support from someone in
a state structure."
The official investigation has focused on an "international
connection" and a "local connection," two leads that were
interrupted by allegations of a government-sponsored cover-up in the
1990s, organized by the executive and judicial officials, allegedly
implicating the president, Carlos Menem, members of the national
intelligence agency (SIDE), the judge in charge of the case and the
president of the DAIA.
From the beginning, some groups, like Memoria Activa (Active Memory), an
organization formed by victims' family members, focused on a local
connection. According to Luciano Hazan, a former lawyer for Memoria Activa,
federal police officers who were supposed to be guarding the AMIA at the
time were not present during the bombing. Evidence also suggests that the
national intelligence agency (SIDE) may have been tipped off about the
attack beforehand.
The investigating federal judge, Juan José Galeano, issued an arrest
warrant in 2002 for 12 Iranian citizens, which Interpol suspended in 2004
because of weak evidence. The so-called "local connection"
resulted in various arrests, including that of Carlos Telleldín, a
mechanic accused of having sold and put together the van used in the
bombing, and four members of the Buenos Aires Provincial Police Force.
However, in 2004 all suspects in the local connection were found not
guilty and acquitted, and a new investigation began. In 2005, Galeano was
impeached as a result of a video that showed the judge offering Telleldín
a bribe of $400,000 in exchange for "evidence" incriminating the
four policemen.
"They built an entire false investigation with the idea of having a
group of people to condemn to avoid a real investigation - a maneuver
carried out by the executive branch by way of the federal police, the head
of the SIDE, the judicial branch, public ministers, secretaries and
leaders of the Jewish community," Hazan said. Beraja, the
president of the DAIA and of the Latin American Jewish Congress at the
time of the bombing and who was expected to pressure the government to
investigate the bombing, is currently standing trial for knowing about the
payment to Telleldín. He was also the president of Banco de Mayo, the
Jewish community´s bank, which went bankrupt in 1998 and which led to
Beraja's
prosecution for bank fraud. According to Argentine journalist Raul Kollman,
Banco de Mayo made large contributions to Jewish institutions and received
financial support from Argentine Central Bank, and Beraja's two positions
created a conflict of interest.
"From the standpoint of being the president of the bank, he needed a
good relationship with the government, and in terms of responding to the
bombing, it was the opposite," Kollman said. "Without a doubt,
this affected the investigation."
Along with Memoria Activa, American Rabbi Avi Weiss of the Hebrew
Institute of Riverdale in New York was one of the first to denounce Menem,
then-president of Argentina, and Beraja of participating in a cover-up.
Weiss flew to Argentina immediately after the bombing with letters from
New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani calling
for a prompt investigation. He met privately with Menem and became
convinced that the president was covering up details uncovered in the
investigation.
"I just looked at him and said, 'Why Argentina a second time?' "
Weiss recalled.
Weiss and several Argentine Jewish community leaders then attended a full
cabinet meeting, where, Weiss said, Menem "was trying to convince us
they did everything they could to catch the bombers of the embassy,"
but Weiss said he noticed Menem nodding off during the meeting and not
speaking. When Menem came to New York two months later to receive an award
from the Appeal of Conscience Foundation for his work on the
investigation, Weiss and a colleague were arrested for demonstrating at
the ceremony. "My God, they were giving him an award," Weiss
remembered thinking. "The who's- who of the Jewish community was
there, honoring this man."
Weiss returned to Argentina a year later and publicly accused Menem of a
cover-up, resulting in Galeano immediately subpoenaing him. Instead of
complying, Weiss took a 2 1/2-hour boat trip from Uruguay to Argentina to
prove how the borders of Argentina easily could be breached.
"I just remember when the ship returned, not only did I not go
through customs, I just jumped off the side of the boat onto the
street," he said.
"No one checked my cameras for bombs."
Although an investigation of the cover-up led by prosecutor Alberto Nisman
began in 2000 and has produced indictments, the oral trial of the
defendants, which includes Galeano, Beraja and the former chief of SIDE,
has not begun. The investigation of the local connection restarted under
Nisman in 2004, but it also still has not gone to trial. "The
judiciary clearly doesn't want it to happen," Hazan said. "It's
a trial where the magnifying glass will not only be on the AMIA and its
cover-up but also on the federal judicial system of Argentina. It'll show
how the federal
judicial system has been working for various years - it's a justice system
that's not transparent, [it's] corrupt."
Hazan noted that, unlike the recent trials of Argentina's military junta
leaders, which occurred about 30 years after the dictatorship, the trials
for the cover-up "affect powers that are still there."
"It's an embarrassment, because we have judges for a reason,"
Hazan said.
"They have to be impartial, independent, without caring what they'll
be told in the hallway for condemning Galeano or his secretaries or a
policeman that someone worked with and was friends with."
In 2005, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner recognized the cover-up and
the government's responsibility for the failure of the AMIA investigation,
but the families of the victims remain frustrated. "One of his
promises was to intensify the investigation, to search for the
international and local culprits and the chain of the cover-up, to improve
border security and provide compensation for the family members,"
said Laura Ginsberg, whose husband died in the bombing. "None of that
happened." An international investigation of the bombing has focused
on Iran. In 2005, the Argentine prosecutors again accused the Iranian
government and Hezbollah of carrying out the bombing and called for the
arrest of then-Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani and other Iranian
officials. This time, Interpol upheld the prosecutors' request for the
arrest warrants, but Iran has refused to extradite.
In January 2013, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner announced that
Argentina had signed a "memorandum of understanding" with Iran
to establish a "truth commission" to investigate the bombing,
which would allow Iran to review Argentina's investigation. But that
memorandum, which remains unratified by Iran, was declared
unconstitutional by an Argentine court of appeals in May 2014 as
interfering with the judiciary, a decision that has since been appealed to
the Supreme Court. In a recent interview, an official from the Foreign
Ministry, who asked to
remain anonymous, took issue with the appellate court decision, saying
that the memorandum only gives the prosecutor and the judge the option to
interview the accused in Tehran.
"They say that you shouldn't negotiate with the Iranians, but we say
that if we want a declaration from Iranians [suspects] who live in Iran
and we want to negotiate with the Iranian government, then we have to go
to Iran," the official told the Journal.
Andrés Cisneros, the deputy foreign minister during Menem's presidency,
said political will in the investigation remains weak, and he compared the
memo with Iran to "asking Dr. Jekyll to find Mr. Hyde," as the
scientist and the monster were the same person.
But when asked about other options, he said, "We don't have
alternatives." "Argentina doesn't have the capacity to
investigate the Middle East," he said. "The countries that can
apply pressure don't have the motivation to help Argentina. Argentina has
isolated itself, and that has produced
weakness." Both Cisneros and Taiana held that Iran never offered to
help with the investigation.
"Today, there's a political decision from the Iranian government to
protect Iranian citizens that it considers victims of a political
persecution and that sees Argentina as simply an arm of the United States
and Israel," Taiana said.
Tension also exists within the Jewish community, between the establishment
and the groups formed by family members.
According to Adriana Reisfeld, the president of Memoria Activa, the group
in the beginning had a "relationship of respect with AMIA and trusted
that the leadership accompanied and didn't betray us." But now, she
says, Memoria Activa is AMIA/DAIA's "worst obstacle" with
respect to the case.
"If we didn't exist, the investigation would already be closed,"
Reisfeld
said, explaining that in 2003, during the oral trial falsely accusing the
Buenos Aires policemen, AMIA/DAIA accused the policemen while Memoria
Activa
didn't. "We have had private talks with the leaders of AMIA and DAIA
and
they all tell us, 'We don't want to have anything else to do with the AMIA
case; we want it to be over.' "
Ginsberg, who heads APEMIA - a group of families and friends of victims
that
split off from Memoria Activa in 2002 - agrees that the AMIA and DAIA are
holding back the investigation by focusing responsibility on Iran.
"Of course the cover-up continues, because their objective is to
accuse
anyone except Argentina," she said.
Unlike Memoria Activa, the AMIA/DAIA is not a criminal complainant in the
cover-up trial involving former DAIA president Beraja.
"The accusation against Beraja is false, unfounded, and serves to
transform
a victim, like the president of the DAIA, into a victimizer,"
explained
Mario Sobol, AMIA's secretary general.
Sobol also responded to the accusations by APEMIA and Memoria Activa that
AMIA does not care about the investigation.
"It is their point of view," he said. "It [the
investigation] is our No. 1
priority." He would not comment on the cause for the accusations,
saying he
does not want to speak badly about other people.
Weiss offered a wider perspective on the divisions.
"It's tough to be critical," he said. "They were inevitable
divisions. When
you're on the inside, you are weighted down by bureaucracy, and when
you're
on the outside, you're not burdened by any of that."
Although united by their dislike of the Jewish leadership, tensions also
exist between Memoria Activa and APEMIA, one being the memorandum with
Iran,
which APEMIA was against but which Memoria Activa supported.
"For us, the memo signifies the deepening of the cover-up and not
reaching
the truth," said Ginsberg, who believes there is not enough evidence
to
substantiate the connection to Iran. "Memoria Activa doesn't think
that the
truth can be reached; that's the big difference. We are convinced the
truth
can be known."
Reisfeld said that Memoria Activa supported the memorandum because it
"thought the memo would lead to something," but she added that
"it's the
only means that has been found until now.
"All the presidents of the United States live negotiating," she
said,
raising her voice. "Go to Israel and talk to Shimon Peres or
[Benjamin]
Netanyahu and ask how it's possible that [Gilad] Shalit was freed.
"Israel is against our victory, because Israel is against the memo,
but it
negotiates permanently. And we can't negotiate to know the truth? It lookslike Israel and the United States don't want to know the truth. The only
ones who want to know are the families," Reisfeld said.
Through all the politics lies the pain of the victims' families.
"We're family members - we're not the police or investigators,"
said
Reisfeld, 58, whose sister, who worked in social services for the elderly
at
the AMIA, was killed in the bombing. "We have already lost the most
important thing, so I don't care now about losing time. It's too bad my
mother died and she wanted to see justice. I hope the same doesn't happen
to
me."
"There are few family members left, and the ones that are here are
divided,"
said Sofía Guterman, whose only child, Andrea, died in the bombing. She
was
27.
Andrea was a kindergarten teacher, engaged to be married that year, and
had
gone to the AMIA for the first time to use its employment services. She
was
nervous about going alone, and Guterman had called Andrea's apartment that
morning to tell her she would accompany her to the AMIA a different day,
but
Andrea had already left. She was found on the seventh day, having died
instantly when a pillar fell on her.
"It was the end for us because our future was with her; it depended
on her,"
Guterman said.
In the investigation's early years, Guterman spoke publicly in support of
the arrest of the four policemen, which turned out to be part of the
cover-up. Then she began getting calls in the middle of the night.
"They breathed heavily, put on the funeral march," she said.
"Once they put
on the voice of a girl crying, screaming for her mother. I almost
fainted."
Guterman, who is in her 70s, has written five books on her daughter, and
gives talks at Jewish and non-Jewish schools about the bombing.
"There are still lies and we can't accomplish anything," she
said. "Not a
trial for the cover-up nor convictions of those responsible [for the
bombing]. If it's really Iran, we can't wait for them to extradite because
they won't. Twenty years is a very big number, and we're like we were the
first day. Without justice."
http://www.jewishjournal.com/world/article/twenty_years_since_the_amia_bombing_in_argentina