(25 Mar 1998) Spanish/Nat

Argentina's Congress has voted unanimously to repeal immunity from prosecution for former officers of the military dictatorship.

Outside congress in the capital Buenos Aires on Tuesday, several thousand people marched on the anniversary of the 1976 military coup.

The bill was purely symbolic, as no officer previously prosecuted and later pardoned can be brought back to trial.

An estimated 25-thousand people marched through downtown Buenos Aires on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of Argentina's military coup 22 years ago.

Similar marches took place across the country.

The event was in memory of a regime that waged a seven-year so-called dirty war against political opponents.

An estimated 9-thousand people died during the 1973-1986 regime.

Human rights groups estimate the number to be nearer 30-thousand.

But former officers of the regime cannot be brought to trial due to laws of immunity first introduced in 1986 and 1987.

Many of those taking part on Tuesday were relatives of the victims of the dirty war.

One of Argentina's best known protest groups, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, led the demonstration.

Their traditional white head scarves bear the names of relatives who disappeared during the regime.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
'We're standing. They haven't been able to defeat us and we'll end up breaking the impunity that Parliament approved, so that they annul the 'Obedience and Final Point Laws'. We want the assassins to pay for their crimes in jail, and of course, as a grandmother I'd like to say that we want to recover our grandchildren."
SUPER CAPTION: Estela de Carlotto, President Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo

A delegation of Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo entered Congress as representatives of the demonstrators.

They displayed photographs of people whose fate at the hands of the regime is still unknown.

The protesters were incensed at a unanimous vote passed in Congress to repeal the so-called immunity laws which protect former members of the regime, because they say it will have no effect.

The act is not retrospective and will not bring former dirty war officers, already convicted and pardoned for crimes against humanity, back for trial.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"We've signed a project in which we abolished two laws that are incompatible with a full democratic system, such as the 'Obedience and Final Point Laws', which - as former president Alfonsin said - were passed during a period of political weakness and today, facing a different moment in Argentina, democracy cannot coexist with two laws that are appalling from the judicial and ethical point of view."
SUPER CAPTION: Carlos Chacho Alvarez, Congressman, FREPASO

The demonstration comes as momentum gathers to reopen the history books and uncover a dark chapter in recent Argentine history.

The bill in congress may not prosecute, but it may enforce legal proceedings which would shed light on the fate of many people.

It was also a unanimous cross-party decision.

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