Brazil probes human rights atrocities

President Cardoso orders release of military files

Brazil's armed forces have been ordered to release documents which could shed light on human rights abuses committed during the country's military dictatorship.

President Fernando Henrique Cardoso demanded all branches of the armed forces to search archives for records of Brazilian involvement in Operation Condor.

Human rights groups believe Operation Condor was conducted jointly by dictators in Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile with the aim of killing regime opponents.

We now know [about Brazil's] expressive, institutionalised involvement... in Operation Condor

Nilmario Miranda
Human rights commissioner

In the 21 years of Brazilian military rule, which ended in 1985, dictators are said to have ordered the kidnapping, torture and murder of opposition leaders and possibly a former Brazilian president.

Nilmario Miranda, who sits on the Human Rights Commission leading the investigation said:" What we now know is that Brazil ... had an expressive, institutionalised involvement in Operation Condor.

"Official documents were provided to the commission showing many exchanges of prisoners with other countries."

Murder

A key part of the inquiry will be a fresh investigation into whether ex-Brazilian President Joao Goulart - deposed when the military came to power in 1964 - was murdered in his sleep while in exile in Argentina in 1976, perhaps through Operation Condor.

In an unprecedented move, Brazil's new, civilian-run defence ministry said it would order all branches of the armed forces to look for evidence of extra-territorial military activities since 1964.

General Pinochet: Linked to Operation Condor

Senior military officers who led Brazil's now defunct National Information Service - much like the US Central Intelligence Agency - have denied any knowledge of Operation Condor.

But a defence ministry spokeswoman said: "There are many other officers who say their statements are false."

The investigation comes years after Brazil's neighbours, including Argentina and Chile, began investigating atrocities under their respective military regimes, which were much more severe than in Brazil.

More than 3,000 political activists are thought to have been killed in Chile.

In Argentina, human rights groups say up to 30,000 people were killed or "disappeared" at the hands of the military government.

Archives of terror

Reports of Operation Condor first emerged in 1992 when a Paraguayan lawyer uncovered the so-called Archives of Terror

The records detailed Paraguay's illegal swap of "disappeared" prisoners among South American nations during its dictatorship.

Brazil's dictatorship is increasingly thought to have played a major role in Operation Condor, as one of the first military regimes installed in the region.

Media reports published earlier this week alleged Brazil's military taught interrogation and torture techniques to Chile's feared secret police after its bloody 1973 military coup.

Numerous criminal complaints have been filed in Chile against former dictator General Augusto Pinochet by relatives of alleged victims of repression during his regime.

General Pinochet returned to Chile in March from London where he spent 16 months under house arrest while fighting a Spanish judge's efforts to extradite him for trial over human rights abuses.

He was released on grounds of ill health and now awaits a court ruling on whether he will stand trial in Chile.