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BUENOS AIRES - Inside a once-secret detention centre where political dissidents were tortured and killed during Argentina's dictatorship 25 years ago, forensic anthropologists have discovered a pit containing 10,000 bone fragments.
The first discovery of human remains inside a detention centre confirms the testimonies of hundreds of survivors who have said for years that authorities tortured and killed political opponents and burned the bodies, they said yesterday.
"This scientifically confirms the testimonies of the detained," said Luis Fondebrider, a forensic anthropologist who helped uncover the remains inside the centre in La Plata, known as Arana.
The 10,000 bone fragments were unearthed between February and September, and yesterday Fondebrider and his team announced that the remains were human. Now months of laboratory work is needed to determine even the minimum number of bodies that were destroyed in the pit.
But the evidence already shows that bodies were thrown into the pit, doused in fuel and burned with tyres to mask the smell of burning flesh. More than 200 bullet marks were found along a wall bordering the mass grave.
The bones weren't completely reduced to ash, allowing for genetic analysis to identify the dead. But Fondebrider cautioned that it wouldn't be possible to identify many of the victims, since prolonged exposure to fire destroyed most DNA.
"This is the first time there is proof that Arana wasn't only a detention and torture centre, but also a centre of elimination," said Maria Vedio, 47, legal chair for the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights La Plata.
Some supporters of the military dictatorship have denied that detainees were tortured or killed, despite the well-documented toll from the "dirty war" crackdown in which political opponents of the junta were made "to disappear", along with their spouses, children, and others unlucky enough to appear in their address books.
Official records put the total disappeared at 13,000, while human rights groups say 30,000 were killed.
Reign of terror
* The military and police operated about 10 detention centres during the 1976-1983 dictatorship in La Plata.
* The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team has identified 350 bodies in Argentina over more than two decades.
* At least 14 former Argentine state security agents and their civilian allies have been found guilty of human rights crimes, including forced disappearances and kidnapping.
* A further 358 are awaiting trial, according to the Buenos Aires-based Centre for Legal and Social Studies.
- AP
