Argentina admits failure in bomb probe

International Relations and Security Network:

Argentina has taken formal responsibility for its failure to discover the culprits in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in the capital Buenos Aires.

Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and judicial officials said earlier this week that previous administrations had tried to cover up the facts and failures in the investigation.

“This is one point that is fundamentally inflexible,” Justice Minister Horacio Rosatti said in a public admission of responsibility for the lack of progress in the investigation.

Kirchner said the admittance would clear the way for families of the victims to receive federal compensation. He also said the government would redouble its efforts to solve the case.

The blast that rocked the Jewish Argentine Mutual Association (AMIA) 11 years ago killed 85 people after a van packed with explosives drove into the building and exploded.

Following the blast, Argentine officials accused radical Muslims of orchestrating the bombing, saying that the perpetrators had procured their explosives in the notorious tri-border region where Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay meet. Supposedly, the area – which is home to a large population of Arab descent - is a hotbed of Muslim militants and their supporters.

US, Israeli, and Argentine officials accuse Iran of having masterminded the bombing - an assertion that Tehran adamantly denies. The bombers themselves are suspected of being members of Lebanon’s Hizbollah.

The US State Department considers Hizbollah a “terrorist organization”, and regards Iran as a “state sponsor of terror”. Iran vigorously denies its involvement in the attacks and has refused repeated requests by Argentina to extradite any Iranian nationals to be tried for the bombings.

The investigation into the bombing has been plagued by government stalling and the mysterious disappearances of witnesses, giving the South American nation’s 300,000 Jews little hope that they would ever learn who targeted the center as part of a campaign of intimidation against the community during the 1990s. READ MORE

For 11 years, Argentina’s Jewish community has accused the government of conducting a shoddy investigation.

The main target of criticism has been the country’s State Intelligence Secretariat, which the Jewish community has accused of mishandling the investigation, even alleging that the intelligence service had received advanced notice some 48 days before the deadly bombing that the AMIA would be attacked.

However, the current administration has said it is determined to pursue the truth in both the AMIA bombing and the 1992 bombing attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 people.