Buenos Aires – The Jewish community in Argentina demanded that the government break off diplomatic relations with Iran in the belief it was that country that was behind the terrorist attack in which 85 people died in Buenos Aires 12 years ago this Tuesday.
“More than enough evidence exists to show Iran was the ideologue of the attack. What are we waiting for to break off diplomatic relations with Iran?” Luis Grynwald, president of the Israelite Argentine Mutual Association (AMIA) said Tuesday.
The leader made his comments on a day of mourning for the victims of the attack that on July 18, 1994 reduced to rubble AMIA headquarters in the Argentine capital, killing 85 people and injuring more than 200.
To the hundreds of people gathered in front of the Jewish organization’s reconstructed building, Grynwald again pointed to the extremist Islamic group Hezbollah as the “author of the attack.”
“It is unquestionably Iran’s responsibility with the participation of Hezbollah. The war on international terrorism should unite all people. They are totalitarian and murderous. We must not tolerate their presence in the country,” he said.
The AMIA president said that the Argentine administration has “the moral and lawful duty” to find the guilty because “impunity together with corruption are the scourges of the world.”
Grynwald demanded as he has on other occasions that both the attack on the AMIA and another that in 1992 destroyed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires leaving 29 dead be declared crimes against humanity.
This year Argentine President Nestor Kirchner was in Paraguay and unable to attend the memorial although several members of his Cabinet were present.
When he returned to Buenos Aires later in the day he was scheduled to receive representatives of the World Jewish Congress which was meeting in Buenos Aires for the first time.
For his part Luis Czyczewsky speaking on behalf of the victims’ families asked the judge delving into irregularities committed in previous investigations of the attack that he subpoena ex-President Carlos Menem (1989-1999) and ex-Interior Minister Carlos Corach to testify.
Last year to meet the demands by Argentina’s Jewish community, the largest in Latin America, Kirchner acknowledged by means of a decree the government’s responsibility in not finding those guilty of the attack against the AMIA.
The cases against 22 Argentines including several ex-police officers accused of complicity in the attack were dismissed for lack of evidence in September 2004 after a trial lasting almost three years.
