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An Argentine magistrate has ruled that military officers who ordered torture against their own soldiers in the 1982 Falklands War can be prosecuted for war crimes. This is part of an ongoing coming-to-terms with Argentina's military dictatorship past, something that many nations in Latin America and elsewhere have had to deal with. What's different about this particular ruling is that officers can now be prosecuted not just for the sort of general human rights violations that are a matter of course in dictatorships, but rather for abuse of their own soldiers in wartime. Mr. Trend notes:
An Argentine court ruled that the torture officers inflicted upon their soldiers during the Malvinas/Falklands War constitutes a "war crime" and a "crime against humanity." The ruling opens the way for prosecution of officers, many still active and fairly high in the military chain of command, who tortured their soldiers before sending them off to the 1982 war with [the United Kingdom]. The accusations number over 70, alleging incidents of staking soldiers to the ground with a mask over their faces, being forced to stand in holes filled with water up to their wastes for hours on end, food- and water-deprivation, and "direct physical torture."The rest can be found here. Two observations: First, torturing one's own soldiers may not produce a particularly effective fighting force; while the Argentine Air Force executed its duty with considerable skill and bravery, the Argentine Army (against whom the torture allegations have been made) performed considerably less well. Second, it is an unalloyed good that Argentine military officers (many of whom, as the article notes, are still in the military) are being held accountable for acts of torture. While there's undoubtedly a relationship between the nature of Argentina's military dictatorship and the means of discipline employed by the Argentine Army, the sort of behavior described above isn't unique to authoritarian states. Making clear that military personnel are culpable for abuses during wartime, even against their own soldiers, sends an important message about the endurance of the rule of law during conflict. If Argentina can manage to come to terms with such a sensitive topic (the Malvinas War is still regarded in Argentina as just, if perhaps ill-considered), then presumably we can as well.
--Robert Farley
