----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, June 30, 2000 5:47 AM Subject: [STOPNATO] Argentine Families To Sue Britain For War Crimes STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM http://www.the-times.co.uk (World) The Times (UK) June 30, 2000 Belgrano relatives to sue Britain BY GABRIELLA GAMINI IN RIO DE JANEIRO AND MICHAEL EVANS THE relatives of 323 Argentine sailors who died when a British submarine sank the cruiser General Belgrano during the 1982 Falklands conflict, are to sue Britain for damages at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Their lawyers in Buenos Aires said that they would make an application on their behalf next week, arguing that the attack violated wartime conventions established in The Hague in 1907. Jorge Antonio Olivera, who represents the families of the dead sailors, said: "We are seeking indemnity for all the deaths. The sinking of the Belgrano took place outside the 200-mile exclusion zone delineated by the British around the Malvinas (Argentina's name for the Falklands)." When Britain deployed its Naval Task Force to the South Atlantic after the Argentine occupation of the Falklands in April 1982, the Government declared a 200-mile exclusion zone around the islands and said that ships breaching the area would be attacked under British rules of engagement. However, the rules were changed for British submarine commanders on May 2 when the Belgrano was considered to be posing an imminent threat to the task force, although it was steaming south of the exclusion zone. The cruiser was sunk after three torpedos were fired by HMS Conqueror, a nuclear-powered submarine which had been following her as she steamed back and forth close to the exclusion zone to the south of the islands. Britain never officially declared war against Argentina, but the legal case rests on the issue of whether the attack on the Belgrano was justified. Seor Olivera, quoting part of the lawsuit to be filed at Strasbourg next Wednesday, said: "At no time did the Argentine ship enter the exclusion zone. On the contrary, early that morning it had set course in the opposite direction, heading for the Argentine islands, the Islas de los Estados." His team of lawyers gained clearance to present their case at the Strasbourg court from a judge in Argentina's southern city of Ushuaia. The lawyers plan to argue that the sinking was a "deliberate action to impair peace talk initiatives undertaken by President Belande Terry of Peru" at the time. Carlos Menem, the former Argentine President, once said that Baroness Thatcher, who was Prime Minister at the time of the conflict,, should be extradited to Argentina to face war-crime charges for the Belgrano sinking. In 1994 an Argentine Defence Ministry report referred to the attack as an "illegal act of war". However, Hctor Bonzo, the captain of the Belgrano, has said that, although his ship was outside the exclusion zone, he "knew there were risks of attack". The lawyers seeking compensation said that Argentina had not previously filed a suit for damages against Britain, "because of political interests". Britain and Argentina restored diplomatic relations in 1990. A spokesman for the A Foreign Office spokesman would not comment until legal papers had been formally filed at the court. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere! http://mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb
