Argentine military staff tortured own troops in Falklands War: prosecutor
May 17, 2018
The forms of torture included stretching victims tied up to four posts for hours at a time during winter cold, and burying troops in snow. Both have been reported by veterans.
COURT
BUENOS AIRES - A prosecutor on Wednesday ordered the arrest of 26 Argentine military officials for torturing their own troops during the Falklands War.
The case involves 22 acts of alleged torture in West Falkland during the 1982 war over the British-ruled islands claimed by Argentina. They were carried out in the Yapeyu Task Force, the official federal prosecutors' website said.
Marcelo Rapoport, Rio Grande federal prosecutor, said military officials on the islands were directed to "order and carry out against various drafted troops acts of torture, as a method of eliminating supposed indiscipline caused by the suffering the military was undergoing due to lack of clothing and food."
The forms of torture included stretching victims tied up to four posts for hours at a time during winter cold, and burying troops in snow. Both have been reported by veterans.
The case itself actually dates back to 2007, and was boosted in 2015 by the declassification of military documents linked to the conflict.
The 1982 war began when troops dispatched by then Argentine dictator Leopoldo Galtieri occupied the archipelago.
A British expeditionary force was sent to the Falklands, known in the Spanish-speaking world as the Malvinas, and took them back.
Britain refuses to negotiate the status of the islands, as demanded by Argentina, arguing that the nearly 3,000 people living on the islands voted in a referendum in 2013 to remain part of Britain.