April 16, 1991

Argentine Officers in Attempted Coup Go on Trial

By NATHANIEL C. NASH,

The trial of 15 Argentine army leaders and almost 500 of their followers who
staged a military uprising on Dec. 3, just before a visit by President Bush,
opened here today amid tight security.

Col. Mohamed Ali Seineldin, who is charged with masterminding the uprising,
and the other commanders, went before the country's highest tribunal in the
Government's Palace of Justice as the country's chief prosecutor accused them of
homicide, attempted homicide, staging an attempted military coup and stealing
weapons.

"Their objective was to take control of the Argentine Army and from that take
over the power of the republic," said Luis Moreno Ocampo, state prosecutor.

The trial is in the same court where members of the country's three military
juntas were tried and sentenced in 1985 for human rights abuses in the 1970's
and negligence for their participation in the 1982 war with Britain over the
Falkland Islands.

In the proceeding that began today, the Government is trying to uphold and
stiffen the judgments of an initial conviction by a military tribunal in January
that ruled the uprising was a mutiny. The Government wants the courts to convict
the defendants of trying to overthrow the Government. Under a revision in the
military code, civil courts review military court decisions.

Mr. Moreno Ocampo said that, while the military court convicted only 13 of
the 15 officers, including their leader, and sentenced them to prison terms of
from 12 years to life, he will seek convictions of the two who were acquitted.
Charges are also being considered against the noncommissioned officers who took
part in the uprising.

"For us, the most important thing is to make sure the life sentence on
Seineldin is upheld," said Mr. Moreno Ocampo.

The trial is a major development in this country's struggle to reverse the
history of military takeovers and influence by the armed forces on the civilian
Government. Since the country's return to a democratically elected Government in
1983, Colonel Seineldin and other junior officers have been responsible for four
uprisings. They are known as the painted-faces, or carapintadas, for the war
paint smeared on their faces during the uprisings.

Until last December, the uprisings were little more than demonstrations to
protest what the rebels called unfair treatment within the army and attempts to
reduce the military's role.

But on Dec. 3, rebel forces attacked important military buildings in downtown
Buenos Aires, one of which was only blocks from the Casa Rosada, the
presidential palace, and 21 people were killed and more than 200 wounded.

Military analysts note that at the time, most commanders rallied around
President Carlos Saul Menem, putting down the uprising in less than 24 hours.
President Bush's visit two days later proceeded unimpeded. Still, the
relationship between the Government and the military is uncertain, and analysts
say the military is divided.

"I think the carapintadas are very isolated at this point and that the
military is in submission to the civilian rule," said Andres Fontana, a military
specialist for Cedes, a political and economic think tank. "But we are going
through a long-term process in which the country is deciding how much autonomy
the armed forces should have."

Mr. Menem has gone to considerable lengths to keep the top military
commanders happy after the administration of former President Raul Alfonsin,
during which they were tried for human rights violations and their role in the
disastrous war with Britain.

It is inevitable that the trial will center on the mysterious figure of
Colonel Seineldin, who has said he is an admirer of General Alfredo Stroessner,
former military leader in Paraguay, and Francisco Franco, former dictator of
Spain.

A Muslim by birth who converted to Catholicism, Colonel Seineldin gained
recognition as a commando in the Falklands War. After serving as a military
adviser to Panama strongman Manuel Noriega in the mid-1980's, he secretly
returned to Argentina in 1988 to lead the third uprising.

He and others were pardoned for that incident by President Menem.

Copyright
2007 The New York Times Company

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