Call for Argentine amnesty clarity

By Elliot Gotkine BBC correspondent in Buenos Aires

The Defence Minister of Argentina, Jose Pampuro, has called on the Supreme Court to rule quickly on whether members of the armed forces are still covered by amnesty laws for the period of military rule which ended two decades ago.

Mr Paduro's comments came a day after a federal court ordered the re-opening of two cases concerning investigations into alleged human rights abuses by nearly 80 members of the armed forces.

Some 80 military officers are being investigated over past rights abuses

Most of these cases were covered by the amnesty laws, which the Argentine congress voted last month to annul.

Monday saw a pair of seemingly contradictory decisions by Buenos Aires based judges.

In one ruling, a judge ordered the release of 39 military officers and a civilian after Spain dropped its request to have the men extradited on the basis that they could now be tried in Argentina.

But seven of them remain in prison, accused of kidnapping babies and forced disappearances.

They could be joined again by many of the officers released on Monday after a second federal judge reopened an investigation into human rights abuses, allegedly committed by some eighty members of Argentina's military junta.

Many of these abuses are alleged to have taken place at Buenos Aires's notorious military mechanic school.

Perhaps the most infamous of the accused is former navy captain, Alfredo Astiz, nicknamed the Blonde Angel of Death.

In a separate development, France says it will press on with its request to have Mr Astiz extradited for the murder of two French nuns.

In 1990, a Paris court tried him in absentia and sentenced him to life in jail.