3.       Case 2271 – Testimony of the children of Mrs. Azucena SOSA DE FORTI

Regarding the arrest and kidnapping of Mrs. Sosa de Forti, a case mentioned above,8 her children presented the following testimony to the Commission:

Background of the arrest

         At the beginning of December 1976 we purchased airline tickets from Aerolíneas Argentinas, the state commercial airline company, at the sales office on Crisóstomo Alvarez Nº 471 Street, telephone 23640, in Tucumán, Argentina, for flight Nº 284, Buenos Aires-Caracas at 9 pm February 18, 1977.

         The five of us who would be traveling with mother accompanied her to Buenos Aires on December 15, with the intent of remaining there until the time of departure and completion of the pending procedures one of them being to obtain renewal of Alfredo Waldo’s and mother’s passports from the Argentine Federal Police. We had arranged for and obtained the others in Tucumán in July 1976.

         On February 19, 1977, we reported to the station of Aerolíneas Argentinas in Buenos Aires, the point of departure for the vehicles that transport passengers to Ezeiza Airport. “The Manuel Tienda León” firm, which is responsible for that service, gave us the ticket stubs for our suitcases, Nos. 548693, 548694, 548695, 548696, 548697, 548698, and 548699m photocopies of which we attach.

         We arrived at Ezeiza Airport, at approximately 7.45 am, where we went through the procedures prior to boarding and presented our tickets and passports, which showed out transit visas given to us by the Government of Venezuela through its consulate in Buenos Aires.

         When the boarding procedures were completed with Aerolíneas Argentinas, we went to the immigration office. After examining and endorsing the documents, the employee who waited on us retained the parental permit for travel for the minors, giving us no explanation for this. We paid the fees and joined the other passengers in the departure lounge, from which we were taken by bus to the aircraft. Seated in our respective seats, with only a few minutes before takeoff, we heard over the loud speaker that the captain was asking to see Mr. Alfredo Forti. Alfredo Waldo answered the call and was met at the front the plane by the Captain, Gómez Villafañe, a uniformed officer of the Argentine Air Force, the immigration employee who had retained the parental permit, two stewardesses, and two other men who, like the immigration employee, were dressed in civilian clothes.

The arrest

         The air force officer asked Alfredo Waldo for our father, and when he told him that the was in Caracas awaiting our arrival, the officer asked him to call mother. When she appeared, he told her we could not travel and that they would therefore take us off the plane.

         The dialogue was conducted in the presence of the passengers seated in the front seats. So far, we have been able to get in touch with two of them, and they were willing to bear witness to this. They are Juan Gally Coll and Juan Manuel Serrano, both staff members of the Ministry of Finance, National Budget Office, who were traveling with their wives.

         The uniformed officer ordered all of us off the plane. There were five armed civilians on the steps leading to the plane, who were identified as policemen under orders of the armed forces. They made us board the bus that had transported us from the departure lounge to the plane.

         One of them asked Alfredo Waldo for his baggage claim stubs. He gave them to an employee of Aerolíneas Argentinas, who removed the suitcases from the baggage hold of the plane. He ten returned the ticket stubs to him. After conferring for a few minutes with the captain other staff accompanying him, plus staff of Aerolíneas Argentinas, the suitcases were loaded on the bus, and we were immediately taken by bus to the airport exit.

         At the airport exit, we were made to get off the bus and get into two private automobiles; we were taken into custody by these civilians and by uniformed male and female personnel of the Argentine Federal Police. Upon leaving the airport area in the cars driven by the civilians, we went through all the controls—both Air Force and police—without being stopped.

Report of the six-day arrest of the family group

         Two of the five civilians who arrested us (one of these being the one who gave the orders) went in one of the cars, a Peugeot, with Mario, Renato, Néstor and Guillermo. Our mother and Alfredo Waldo went in the other car, a Falcon, accompanied by the three other civilians, two in front and one in the rear.

         After leaving the airport area and driving ten or fifteen minutes off the main highway, the two cars stopped on a secondary road, and the chief ordered everyone to get out. This was in a rural area with no buildings in sight. Just then, Alfredo Waldo noticed a car parked on the shoulder of the road some distance away, with its doors open and some people next to it.

         The person who ordered us to get out told us that we would be blindfolded, whereupon, the two smallest children began to cry inconsolably and even more so when they saw mother blindfolded, her face covered by a piece of clothing. Through their tears, my brother said that they were going to kill all of us. This brought a reprimand on the part of the chief, which was addressed to our mother. He said to her: “Madam, how is it that the child knows so much. There must be some reason for this, right?” Our mother replied that the children were terrified by what was going on.

         Following this incident, and completely unexpectedly, all of us were blindfolded. They put us into the automobiles, distributing us as before, and since Guillermo, the youngest, who was then eight years old, was continuing to cry blindfolded, the head of the group removed him from where he was in the Peugeot to sit next to mother in the Falcon, saying to her: “… note, Madam, that we are behaving as humanely as possible.”

         Under these circumstances, all of us blindfolded, we resumed the drive. Alfredo Waldo, whose pullover covering his eyes had been badly set in place, could see part of the highway and saw clearly that the car he had discerned at a distance on the shoulder was a police patrol car and that the people surrounding it were three uniformed police who were washing it. As we approached, they interrupted their work and stood up at the side of the road, greeting the people who were transporting us with smiles and friendly gestures. When we passed them, one of the persons who were with us shouted to them: “Work…” and an obscenity. This same person, noting that the piece of clothing covering his (Alfredo Waldo’s) eyes was loose, adjusted it, so that he could no longer see.

         We continued driving for approximately one hour, during which, because of the noises we heard, we drove along a heavily trafficked highway, causing delays for some drivers. Because of that and certainly to clear the way, they ran the sirens.

         We arrived at a place into which the cars entered, and several of us were under the impression, confirmed by a brother who could see, that it was a garage. There, the assumed chief and one other civilian got out and seemed to go to speak with someone, since in a few minutes they were back, and we left that place, still in the same automobiles, driving another fifteen or twenty minutes more and entering another or perhaps the same garage, where they took us out of the vehicles.

         Still blindfolded we were taken upstairs, we passed a room where we heard the sounds of typewriters and some murmuring, to an office with armchairs, a desk, and two cabinets, where they removed the blindfolds, and we remained in custody of three people who took turns watching us.

         After staying there three or more hours, we were transferred, this time without blindfolds, but made to look down at the floor, to some prison cells where we found mother, who had been in another office at the same time as we were but blindfolded, before being moved to the prison.

         The prison cells consisted of a rectangular patio of about 4 meters wide and 7 long, bordered on two sides by six cells of approximately 1.5 meters by 2 meters and a bathroom of the same dimensions. The patio was closed off by walls on the sides where there were no cells. In one of those walls was the door leading to the patio, which had no roof but was covered by a large grill. From the patio that we were in, one could see part of the façade of the building, which because of its characteristics, was easy to distinguish from the outside. Another point of reference is that on the way we could see planes flying fairly regularly—in an east-west direction, according to our estimates. Some of these were Argentine commercial planes and other appeared to be military planes.

         They left us with the doors of the cells open.

         Someone told us that the “Colonel” would come later and would explain to mother why we were there.

         Saturday the 19^th went by, Sunday the 20^th, and Monday the 21^st, and the Colonel did not come. We spent those days not even knowing why we had been arrested or where we were, and we could imagine the despair of our relatives, especially of our father, who was waiting for us in the Caracas Airport.

         On the floor above us there were more cells in which there were six young women who said they were university students from La Plata. One of them was six months pregnant; the other had had a son two months before. These girls told us that there were men in the cells on the floor above, some of them their husbands and friends. Some of the women had been arrested as long as four months ago. The girls said they were considered to have “disappeared”. We spoke to them from the patio, where on one occasion we could see them.

         The watch system consisted of 24-hour guards, under the command of a so-called “guard corporal” (as he was called by the other prisoners), seconded by two aids, who acted in a typically military way. These people brought us breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Lunch and dinner were generally lentil stew with potatoes or cornmeal mush and a piece of bread. Once a guard remarked to us that we were eating the same meal as the soldiers. There were three guard corporals or guard captains, since we were with each of them twice in six days.

         On the morning of Tuesday February 22, they took mother out blindfolded while we slept and brought her to speak with the person who identified himself as the “Colonel”. This person informed mother that he really did not know why we were there; he said that they had arrested us in compliance with “higher orders”, and with the little information he had, he thought this was a “problem of documentation that would be settled in a few days.” He also told her that all of us would have to go to Tucumán (the city in the interior where we lived for the last four years) and that they would take her by plane and us by train.

         On the morning of the following day, Wednesday the 23^rd, they took mother to speak once again with an aide of the Colonel, and he asked her where we had been living in Buenos Aires. Mother answered him, mentioning the name of relatives and friends where we had stayed. The aide told her he thought it advisable that we should stay with some of the relatives mentioned and that she alone should go to Tucumán.

         That same day, they blindfolded us and bound our hands behind our back at night, and put us into a car in which the five of us went with the driver and a companion, they seemed to be taking another in another car that went along with ours. We were riding for about an hour when both cars stopped.

         The person who seemed to be in charge got out of the other car and spoke with Alfredo Waldo. He told him that we should not be afraid, that they were going to take mother to Tucumán and in five days she would be with us so that we could all go to Venezuela. Having said that, they made us all get out of the cars, still tied and blindfolded. They left us at the side of the road along with some packages of clothing taken from the baggage wrapped in sheets. They gave us just our identification cards and took off rapidly.

         We succeeded in untying ourselves. We were only two blocks from the house of a family of friends and we decided to go there.

         Since that time we have heard nothing more about our mother. Within a few days the priest, Alfonso Naldi, sent by Cáritas Venezolana, came to Buenos Aires to make arrangements for our father. With Padre Alfonso and the help of Monsignor Emilio Gracelli, of the Military Vicar’s Office, we had the Federal Police give us new passports, issued on March 9, 1977. Through Monsignor Gracelli, we were informed that the Federal Police had no knowledge of our detention and that the dossier on our mother had no warrant for her arrest.

E.       Different positions on the problem of the disappeared

1.       As stated earlier, the Commission has no doubt that the problem of the disappeared detainees is the most serious human rights problem in Argentina. This problem deeply affects the unity and harmony of the Argentine society. Consequently, it is of particular interest to examine the ideas about and reaction to this on the part of those who have been affected and those who have a special responsibility for solving it.

a.       Family members

2.       Those who are concerned about the disappeared persons, in other words, their relatives and close friends, have used virtually every available legal procedure to determine the whereabouts of their loved ones. The most frequently used have been habeas corpus, denunciations of illegal deprivation of liberty in courts of justice or to the police, and administrative measures in accordance with procedures established at the Ministry of the Interior.

From all of these measures—measures that have been taken repeatedly—thousands of persons have obtained no satisfaction. The Executive has consistently replied that no information about the detainees is on record. Investigations have always failed. And generally speaking, the Judiciary has rejected all remedies interposed, as will be seen further on, or has dismissed the cases.

In their anxiety, families have also turned to the Catholic Church and other religious authorities for help and intervention. They have sought the assistance of international human rights agencies, among them the IACHR. The Commission itself has received thousands of complaints, which it has in process.

3.       It is also important to note here the solidarity that has developed among the families of the disappeared. These families have taken coordinated action at the administrative and judicial levels of Argentine human rights organizations for the purpose of obtaining answers from the authorities. One example of this is the group known as “The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo”. This group meets every Thursday in front of the Government House to demand information on the whereabouts of their family members, especially their children.10

In an interview held during the on-site observation, one of these mothers, speaking on behalf of her group, stated the following:

         More than two years ago when what has happened to so many happened to me, I also went to the Plaza de Mayo. My pain was as fresh and not yet tempered. Since these things had been going on for some time, I had the naïve hope that we were reaching the end of this drama. Like all new arrivals, they asked me who my “disappeared person” was and for how long he had been gone. My answer was broken by cries: “a daughter and my son-in-law…four months ago…” I heard their replies: “Three of my children a year ago.” “Me, a daughter, an invalid, eight months ago.” “My parents and my sister… she was pregnant.” At that point, the situation that I felt was coming to an end grew for me both in size and time. Today, the women who were the first to go to Plaza de Mayo have persisted for three long years without finding out anything about their children and there are others who have just started. But they do not have the consolation and strength that we have from the solidarity at the Plaza de Mayo.

         In this whole affair there was one hated word but one repeated without end, “disappeared”. That is the synthesis and definition of our situation.

         When we explained why we were there to people passing through the Plaza de Mayo, with some surprise our actual situation moved into the nebulous area of myth. People asked us: “Disappeared?” “But you see them, you know where they are.” “No!” “That is what we want to find out.” “But aren’t they in jail, aren’t they being tried?” “No!, that is what we are asking for.” Every Thursday and every day, whenever the chance arose, we explained the situation which, because of its highly unusual nature, not even our own fellow countrymen understood, unless they themselves had been either directly or indirectly touched by it.

         The Government did not describe the situation or even use the word “disappeared”. (Furthermore, in one request they made us delete the word and change the text.) Official references to events involving internal or external politics spoke only of the “dirty war or the undeclared war,” believing that this single reference gave sufficient reason for government action.

         The experience we had in this daily struggle, meager in its achievements, made us grow up. We understood that “each case” was “all cases,” that from the specific we should go to the general. If all cases had similar connotations perhaps a definition would be developed of what a “disappeared person” was. The accepted use of the word is so new that we have to put it in quotes when we use it. Consequently, it is necessary to define the slice of life that this new use of the term “disappeared” covers. That way, it becomes part of the system.

         The way is open now for institutions that attempt to enforce human rights to make public their opinions not about any particular case but about the organization of these disappearances as a system of repression. In our country these disappearances are counted in the thousands. The list prepared by the humanitarian agencies, using only data given to them contains more than 5,500 disappearances. If we read this list along with relevant testimony our hearts stop beating because of the horrors it contains.

         Gentlemen, members of the Commission, we are in the presence of a massive violation of human rights, of the right to life that our Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Church seek to protect.

         Gentlemen, members of the IACHR, the mothers here present beg of you, on behalf of the mothers of every “disappeared person,” to find a solution for this problem.

         You should have the right to the files of lists, to obtain the lists of those who turn themselves in voluntarily (although you should give it in secret to their family members); you should obtain the lists of prisoners and disappeared persons which the President has mentioned; you should be given the lists of persons which all the armed forces keep in their quarters; you should have the list of persons killed in confrontations, persons whose names have not appeared in the newspapers, and whose corpses were never turned over to their family members.

         We repeat: please take as many measures as you can to bring about a solution to this frightful problem.

         Every Argentine citizen should know of it. Some of us have become aware of it through pain, others will become aware of it by learning about it. But we have to understand this truth because it is our commitment to future generations. Otherwise a shadow of sadness will remain forever over the descendants of this shattered generation and peace will not come to so many desolate families. They will always be looking around thinking in what unknown place their son continues to suffer or what tree or what piece of sky attracted his last glance, his last breath, his last thought. They have been denied even the small place of earth earned at birth for their final resting place.

b.        The Government

4.       The Government’s position when complaints started to come in from family members, as can be drawn from the reports received by the Commission, was to avoid giving clear answers and to state firmly that it was unaware of the whereabouts of the disappeared. As time went by, and due primarily to the ceaseless campaign waged by the claimants, it has recognized that this fact exists and has set up mechanisms within the Government, through the Ministry of Interior, to attend to complaints and to provide information. Despite this, many answers are still vague.

When the Judiciary requested information from the Executive, in processing a writ of habeas corpus, the Executive responded repeatedly that it was unaware of the whereabouts of the individuals involved and stated that they were not detained or at the disposition of any civil or military authority.

5.       Fundamentally, four basic reasons have been advanced by the governmental authorities for their disappearance: a) the persons have died in confrontation and, due to the condition of the corpses, could not have been identified; b) they left the country under cover; c) they had been executed by subversive groups because they are deserters; and d) they are living underground.

Ultimately, however, the authorities have also begun to list as one of the causes for the disappearances “excesses or abuses in repression,” although they do not refer to any specific situation or concrete case. During the on-site observation, high-ranking government authorities argued before the Commission that the situation in Argentina for the past few years was one of war, a war that they call a “dirty war” or, in the words of President Videla, a “vague war” or an “ill-defined war.” According to the Minister of the Interior, this could never be admitted since it would mean, under international law, the recognition of a state of war with all the consequences that such a situation implies. According to these authorities, excesses could have been committed during this “war” in the repression of subversion, thus leading to the disappearance of persons.

6.       An even more forthright opinion on this matter was given to the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Member of the Military Junta of Government, Lieutenant General Roberto Viola, who on Soldier’s Day, May 29, 1979, spoke as follows about the aftermath of the campaign against subversion:

         This war, like all wars, has a dimension that is different from the value of life. For that reason it is a war. Dams and barriers are broken. Life and death are gambled away in the pursuit of victory. The worst thing is not the loss of life; the worst thing is to lose the war. For that reason, the Army, which today has restored the value of life, can say to the country that we have carried out our mission. This is the only and, we believe, sufficient explanation. The price of this is known to the country and to the Army, too. This war, like all wars, had an aftermath: tremendous wounds that time and only time can heal. These wounds are the number of casualties: the dead, the wounded, the detainees, the ones who are absent forever. The Army knows it and feels it because it is not inhumane or insensitive. The terrorists, with unbridled arrogance believed that by assassinations they could break the will to win of the Armed Forces and of the immense majority of the population. Unfortunately, the terrorists were men and women, who had been born on this generous soil. They were wrong; they were deceived and they deceived and darkened the land of their birth. They deceived their supporters, whose anxiety they provoked which nobody today can legitimately assuage. These circumstances will undoubtedly widen the breach left in the wake of the war, because blameless families, affected by the pain, are also Argentine. The Army knows this and feels this. Its only explanation is the liberty, which our homeland entrusted to it for safekeeping.

7.       Earlier statements, combined with the actual experiences of the Commission during its on-site observation, and the express recognition by the Government that the war had ended, and that peace and security now prevail in the streets, inevitably led the Commission to the consideration that the Government ought to use all the means within its power to bring peace and tranquility to the thousands of persons who continue seeking the whereabouts of their loved ones.

c.       The Government answers to the IACHR

8.       With respect to the Argentine Government’s position, a special section is devoted to the answers the Government has been giving to requests for information from the Commission. As a rule, the answers fall under one of the following formulas:

         Persons for whom there is no record of detention and who are the subject of police search conducted by the Ministry of the Interior.

…………

         Persons about whose whereabouts and status investigations are being initiated since no complaints were recorded prior to those submitted by the Commission.

………….

         List of names for whom measures cannot be taken since the data needed to initiate the necessary inquiries is incomplete. For the purpose of carrying out an investigation, for each case it is necessary to have first and last names, identification documents, domicile and the circumstances specifying the time and place where these disappearances occurred, as well as any other data that may help to clarify the facts.

……………

9.       Starting in October, 1978, the Government stopped answering, for a long time, all requests for information about individual cases that the Commission had requested. It was only answering the resolutions adopted by the Commission.

Since August 1979, the Commission has been receiving new answers, which, even though they do not help to locate the disappeared persons, are more detailed than the earlier answers. Many of them explain what investigations have been undertaken or what the results, likewise unproductive, of the habeas corpus procedures have been. In some cases, they have provided information about the sentences or subversive ties of the affected parties.

10.     Even though Resolutions 314, 371 and 445, adopted by the OAS General Assembly at its seventh, eighth and ninth regular sessions, respectively, recommended to the member states that they cooperate fully with the Commission and provide it with the information needed to facilitate its work, in the opinion of the Commission the Argentine Government has generally responded in an unsatisfactory manner, and in some cases, it has contradicted itself.11 Only since August 1979, had it been providing more complete information, which the Commission hope is an expression of the Government’s concern for a clarification of the situation of the disappeared persons.

d.       The Judiciary

11.     The thousands of petitions for habeas corpus entered with the Judiciary on behalf of detainees who have disappeared have produced no effective results. Initially, when habeas corpus petitions were entered, the federal judges asked the pertinent authorities—generally the Minister of the Interior, the Chief of Police or the Commanders-in-Chief of the Armed Forces—for a report to determine whether the individuals were or were not in detention. Since the replies stated that there was no record of detention, the courts opted to deny the petitions.

Subsequently, as the claimants learned more information that led them to presume the involvement of the government security forces in the operations mentioned, they began to present more evidence in the habeas corpus petitions. Despite this, the results continued to be negative and the Judiciary failed to assume a more active role in the investigation the status of the detainees who had disappeared. Sometimes, the courts hearing the cases chose to refer them to examining magistrates for proceedings on illegal detention; however, this route was equally unfruitful in solving the problem and the large majority of the cases ended in a dismissal, owing to the difficult position in which the judges found themselves when they did not receive the due reports from the military or police authorities.

12.     This slow process has changed as a result of some recent Supreme Court rulings, notably, the ruling in the case of Inés Ollero, and in three cases entitled Perez de Smith, et al., particularly the final judgment of December 21, 1978. At that time, the Supreme Court explained the reasons why it did not have jurisdiction to hear the case; however, it noted:

         In the present proceedings there have been reports from a number of courts which show that the courts have had to reject writs of habeas corpus, because the authorities have flatly reported that the individuals for whom the habeas corpus petitions were entered are not registered as detained.

         Faced with this situation, the Court has the unavoidable duty of exercising its implicit powers inherent as the supreme judicial organ, and head of one of the three branches of the Government, powers which it may not renounce—in order to safeguard the effective administration of justice, so that the specific function of the magistrates may have the guarantees and conditions needed to achieve effective results based on decisions of concrete utility with respect to the rights they are asked to protect.

         The circumstances referred to at the beginning of the preceding paragraph ultimately involve an absence of justice, since this situation is created not only when the people find it impossible to have their day in court or when the court’s ruling is unreasonable or indefinitely delayed but also when the judges are not provided with the conditions necessary to enable them to perform the duties of their office as demanded by the very nature of the rule of law, in order that the rule of law may produce the positive results for which the Judiciary is responsible under the Constitution. This is all the more true when, as in the situation discussed here; the fundamental rights of man are at stake. And as such, they require inviolable guarantees, because they are the invaluable heritage of the common good.

At a further point, the same document goes on to say:

         It must be said that it is not within the purview of this Court to evaluate or to voice general views on situations over which it has no jurisdiction; the specific nature of the Court’s functions prohibits it from so doing, in the context of the basic institutions of the Republic, and on the basis of its repeated holding that the authority of its rulings rests on the assumption that the Court will remain within the limits of its jurisdiction.

         But in its capacity as the ultimate interpreter of the Constitution, and as the highest organ of one of the branches of Government, it is its duty to jealously safeguard the proper and effective administration of justice; to this end, it must strive to have the courts provided with the means necessary to exercise their specific jurisdictional function—which emanates from the Constitution and the laws—to rule on situations submitted to them in specific cases and to do so with the effectiveness the law requires. The high mission of administering justice that fails to the members of the Judiciary, and the confidence that the country’s citizens and institutions place in them requires this, in the interests of the common good and social peace.

         The foregoing notwithstanding, it should be recalled that the other branches of government are also connected by the purpose that inspired the Constitution—which is valued in and of itself—this purpose is stated in the Preamble and is to guarantee justice. Thus, the other branches must provide full assistance to the Judiciary so that it can ensure that the rights and guarantees set forth in the Constitution are fully operative.

         Given that the absence of justice, referred to above, is due to causes outside the jurisdiction of the Judiciary, and which it is not in a position to remedy by simply by its activity in office, this Court considers it its unavoidable duty to bring this situation to the attention of the Executive, and to urge it to employ the measures within its power to create the conditions to enable the judiciary to give complete rulings on the cases brought before it, and to safeguard the freedom of the individual guaranteed by the Constitution, without however, disregarding the objectives of national union, domestic peace and common defense, also sought by the common will of the people, from which it is not lawful for the constituted power to deviate.12

13.     As a result of this ruling, innumerable habeas corpus petitions were again submitted, but met with difficulties in the lower courts, which continued to receive the same reports from the Executive signifying that the judicial recourse for detained persons who have disappeared continues to be inoperative.13

The Supreme Court has recognized an absence of justice when Courts are unable to carry out their constitutional mandate because of circumstances outside their control; it has urged the Executive to take such measures as may be necessary for the proper administration of the law, and thus guarantee that citizens receive an adequate response to their petitions permitting clarification of the status of the “disappeared”.

Thus, the writ of habeas corpus, a fundamental safeguard for respecting the security of the individual, has not been operative vis-à-vis the “disappeared”.14

e.       Public opinion

14.     Despite the importance and significance of this problem the lack of public information has prevented the development of a general awareness in Argentina of the implications of what has happened.

Initially, most newspapers refused to publish any news on the issue, and even refused to print paid advertisements that included the word “disappeared”. Nonetheless, as a result of numerous complaints, and the persistence of the human rights defense agencies, some personal advertisements, denunciations, and list of names of persons who have disappeared have been published.

15.     At the time of the Commission’s visit, some newspapers expressed their concern over the question, noting the necessity of solving it, and indicated that in the field of human rights, the phenomenon of the disappeared was of the greatest concern. During its visit, the Commission was able to sense a certain indifference, and in a few cases, even incredulity, among some sectors of the population. However, it believes that the visit itself and the broad, objective publication of information during the course of its work, helped the Argentine people form a clear picture of this serious problem, and this in itself represents a valuable contribution toward solving it in the future.

f.        The Catholic Church

16.     As noted earlier, numerous anguished families have approached the Church in an attempt to obtain information.

In May 1977, the Episcopal Conference issued an important document on the issue. There were moves at that time to form a Special Liaison Committee between the military and the ecclesiastical authorities. Unfortunately, this Committee has never had any significant successes. The topic has continued to be a subject of concern to the Church, as it has indicated in a number of statements. For example, the statements of the Argentine Episcopal Conference in its document “Los Caminos de la Paz” (The Road to Peace) summarized its attitude. This document states:

………

         We understand what a difficult undertaking it is in practice to watch over the common good, which has been damaged by the terrorist guerrilla which has constantly violated the very elements of peaceful coexistence, and thus, the basic rights of man; we also understand how guarding the common good may be in apparent collision with certain individual rights.

         We are aware of an appreciate the efforts of governmental leaders and officials, their dedication and selflessness in service to the Nation, which in no small number of cases has meant giving their lives, and in many others, has meant anguish and lack of security in their personal and family lives, and a renunciation of personal achievements so that they could devote themselves to the common good.

         We have often heard of the Christian imprint that the government wishes to give to its actions. This obliges us to recall that the essence of Christian man is making a selfless practical commitment.

         It is in the light of these considerations that we may be so bold as to report the following facts which, among others, give us serious concern:

         a)       The numerous disappearances and kidnappings denounced, while no authority is able to respond to the appeals that are being made; which seems to show that the government does not have an exclusive hold on the use of force;

         b)       The situation of many inhabitants of our country, who are denounced by families or friends as having disappeared or having been kidnapped by groups identifying themselves as members of the Armed Forces or the Police, while in the majority of cases, neither family members nor the bishops, who have so often interceded, have obtained any information about them.15

17.     During its on-site observation, the Commission met with the President of the Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Raúl Primatesta, who said that his concern about the problem had been stressed in documents of the Argentine Catholic Church, in the hope of producing a clarification of the facts.

18.     It is also important to recall the expressions of concern over the problems of the “disappeared” in Argentina voiced by His Holiness Pope John Paul II, on October 28, 1979, in a sermon to more than 70,000 faithful, after he had received the Argentine bishops.

F.       The Laws on the “disappeared”

1.       In August and September 1979, the Government of Argentina promulgated two laws on the disappeared, which are controversial by the very nature of the matters they regulate.

These laws are:

a.       Law on Presumption of Death because of Disappearance

2.       This Law was promulgated as Nº 22.068 on September 12, 1979. Article 1 establishes that a declaration of presumption of death may be issued if a person’s disappearance from his domicile or residence, without there being further news of him, was denounced in a documented report between November 6, 1974, the day on which the State of Siege was declared by Decree Nº 1.368/74, and the date on which the present law was promulgated, i.e., September 12, 1979.

According to Article 2, this declaration of presumption of death shall be issued by the Federal Judge of the last domicile or residence of the disappeared; in the Capital the federal Judge (Federal circuit, for civil and commercial matters) shall have jurisdiction; the declaration may be requested by the spouse, by any family member up to the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity, or by the State, through the pertinent Ministry. This article adds that this action is exclusive to each person legitimately entitled to exercise it, and it may be exercised “despite opposition by other principal parties.” Article 3 establishes that in no case shall the proceeding be contentious in nature; Article 4, that in all cases, the application for the declaration of death shall indicate the official agency with which the report of disappearance was filed, and the date on which it was filed; Article 5 establishes that when the judge receives the application for the declaration, he shall request information from the agency with which the denunciation was filed regarding the formal veracity of the act and the date of its presentation, and shall order publication of edicts for five successive days in two high-circulation newspapers in the place in question and in the Official Gazette, issuing a summons for the disappeared person. Article 6 establishes that ninety days after the final publication of the edicts, during which time the judge shall de officio request information from the Ministry of the Interior on the information or procedures connected to the reported disappearance, if both are negative, a declaration shall be issued de officio of presumption of death, and the date of decease shall be set as the date of the denunciation, and the ruling shall be ordered recorded in the official agency in each jurisdiction that records births, marriages, deaths and civil capacity. Article 7 provides that the civil effects of the declaration of presumption of death based on the law shall be those established in Articles 28 to 32 of Law Nº 14.394, i.e., for civil effects subsequent to the ruling declaring presumption of death on account of disappearance. Lastly, Article 8 provides for issuing a record of the ruling for presentation to whomever it may concern, at the request of the interested party.16

3.       There have been objections to this Law, and a number of its provisions have been questioned, because it only refers to cases of disappearance within a particular time period: those disappearances that occurred between the date when the state of siege was declared (November 6, 1974), and the date on which the law was promulgated; because jurisdiction is given to the federal courts, which is an exception to the Constitution, that is, only judges appointed by National Government and not by the Provinces; nor can the cases be taken up by the civil judges of the regular courts, although it is they who ought to have jurisdiction since the nature of the matters they hear is eminently civil, referring as they do to personal problems which, along with family and inheritance problems, fall within the purview of the Civil Code. There have also been objections and questions because the plaintiff in the action may be, in addition to the spouse, any member of the family up to the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity, and also the State through the Attorney General of the jurisdiction in question, and because the Attorney General is granted standing to act de officio, with the action being exclusive to each person so entitled, who may act despite opposition from other principal parties; because in no case will the action be contentious in nature, that is to say, that there will be no room for argument in the suits, as if it were an administrative procedure; because it is implicit that there will be no writ of habeas corpus and because, the final part, which recognizes the interested parties’ right to request a certification of the ruling issued by the judge, means the equivalent of issuing a death certificate for the disappeared.

4.       It appears from the communication from the Minister of the Interior to the President dated September 5, 1979, with which he forwarded the proposed law for approval, that the bill is “aimed at regulating the situation afflicting a certain number of Argentine families, as a result of the prolonged absence and fate of some of their family members, consequence of the grave events that our country has faced in the recent past.” It also states that the declaration of the state of siege “is evidence that there exists a situation that has made it necessary to take this exceptional measure provided for in the Constitution, in the face of the chaos unleashed by terrorism, with its wake of death, kidnappings and the disappearances.” The communication adds: “While no small number of the presumed disappeared continue underground or have surreptitiously left the country, there is a reasonable possibility that others have died as a result of their own terrorist activities, and that it has not been possible to determine the whereabouts of their remains or to determine their identity. Elementary reasons of order demand that these situations be defined with certainty and that the various family problems they entail be resolved through the law hereby proposed.”

b.       Law on Welfare Benefits when a person is absent

5.       The other law on the disappeared was Law Nº 22.062, of August 28, 1979, prior to the law on the declaration of presumed death by reason of the disappearance of a person. It contains the rules governing welfare benefits when a person is absent. Article 1 of the Law stipulates the following:

         The absence from his place of residence or domicile in the Republic of a person, concerning whom there has been no news for a period of (1) one year, entitles persons who have a right recognized by national laws on retirement, pensions or noncontributory benefits, subject to the death of that person, to exercise it as laid down in this law.

For that purpose, Article 2 specifies that “the interested parties shall substantiate the report of the disappearance by means of a legal certificate and shall justify the legal grounds and the steps taken to ascertain the existence of the absent person to the National Welfare Institute or the agency responsible for the payment of the noncontributory benefit; it adds that “without prejudice to the evidence offered by the petitioner or to that which is deemed appropriate ex officio, the absent person shall be summoned by notices to be published free of charge in the official Bulletin for five (5) days.” This provision amends the time limits and procedures specified in Law 14.394 of 1954 whose provisions have been incorporated into the Civil Code.17

Although as time goes on matrimonial and property situations concerning disappeared persons will arise as a result of such events, it would nevertheless appear that the provisions of the Civil Code would be sufficient for dealing with or solving these situations; as already stated, the Civil Code was amended by Law 14.394, which shortens the deadlines and provides a pragmatic procedure that guarantees the legitimate interests of the parties and averts risks and delays in the relevant legal processing.

c.       Opinions obtained during the on-site observation

6.       During the on-site observation, the Commission wished to obtain as many opinions as possible about the laws relating to the disappeared. To that end, it discussed the subject with the governmental authorities and with a number of professional institutions and organizations engaged in the defense of human rights.

7.       The associations devoted to the promotion and respect of human rights, as well as many relatives of disappeared persons, expressed views that echoed the objections that have been pointed out and stated some of the legal implications of those laws. They emphasized that as regards the problem of the disappeared, they considered Law 22.068 illegal in that it deals only with welfare problems or possible civil situations caused by the loss of a relative, but does not go into the causes which gave rise to such consequences, i.e., the problem of disappeared persons, which in their opinion persists and is still a burning issue. In addition, these associations and the relatives of the disappeared have informed the Commission that they did not seek the enactment of those laws, nor have they publicly stated that they were necessary, and that, on the contrary, what they have always strived for is a thorough investigation and report about the fate of the disappeared; that their protests have specifically concerned life and liberty; that in their reports, testimony, and appeals, they have gone on record for the basic defense of those values; and that it was precisely on that issue that the Supreme Court stated in the case of Pérez de Smith et al, that there was a deprivation of justice; that their protests have never concerned property questions nor have civil actions even been instituted; and that their attitude in no way minimized the seriousness of the situation caused by their disappearance, in particular their effects on the family, minor children, and property.18

8.       The Lawyers Association of the City of Buenos Aires is of the opinion that the Government has endeavored to find a practical remedy to the problem of the disappeared, the existence of which it admits; and that when death is not established with certainty, it seeks to institute a system for solving the problems arising from that circumstance; that such laws are aimed at remedying the situation from the financial and social welfare point of view; that id does not preclude the lodging of criminal complaints or the filing of writs of habeas corpus; and it adds that the basic wish of the Association, what is most important, is that the disappeared persons should appear and steps in that regard should therefore continue to be taken, but the laws can help to solve the legal problem in part.

9.       The subject was discussed by the Commission with the Argentine Government. The President, Lt. Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla, referring to the problem of the disappeared stated that it is a painful fact and that the law on presumed death takes into account the situation of the relatives, in so far as it is a legislative measure aimed at solving, among other problems, those issues relating to adoptions, divorces, widowhood, all of which require a determination of legal status.

In the interview the Commission had with the Military Junta, the Commander-In-Chief of the Army, Lt. Gen. Roberto Eduardo Viola, said that the purpose of these laws is to help solve the problem of the disappeared and its consequences; that to obtain approval of those laws required lengthy discussions but that finally they were approved in view of requests from within and outside the country to regularize the rights of the disappeared from human rights organizations who now criticize them; and that the intent of the laws is not to preclude writs of habeas corpus, but to clear up the situation of individuals whose whereabouts are unknown due to the civil war in which unidentified persons were killed in conflict, others were executed by terrorists who passed sentences on each other, others clandestinely left the country, and others went into hiding conspiring to endanger the security of the State.

In an interview with the Commission, the Minister of Justice made observations about the role of the Attorney General, the non-contentious nature of the procedure and the fact that the time period is considered short; he stated that the persons who drafted the law did so with a humanitarian sense for the problems connected with the disappeared and that its purposes are merely patrimonial, in that the law is intended for third parties, for the families. He added that the sentence is one of those which doctrine points out as being for “as long as legally appropriate,” that is, until the contrary is not shown. But in no way does this preclude the fact that if the subject is still alive, the sentence does not take effect. Obviously, he said, provisions call for an Attorney General to initiate the action under any circumstance, but whoever wishes to initiate habeas corpus proceedings may do so. He repeated that the sentence did not call for the death of the person except when legally appropriate; as for the issue of eliminating the intervention by the Attorney General, he said he would bring this matter to the attention of the President.

The Minister of the Interior, General Albano Harguindeguy, also answered the Commission’s questions on this subject. He stated that he was aware of the worldwide reaction to the law on the presumption of death and went into great detail on the background of this subject in Argentine law. He further stated that the judgment only had a social effect, that it did not rule out habeas corpus proceedings and other procedures, and that the purpose of providing that the procedure not be contentious, is that the procedure outlined by the law should be followed, that the law was promulgated for the purpose of providing a solution for family and social problems that arose for persons who considered themselves victims of this situation, and that for this reason, the only goal was to shorten the time involved and to accelerate the procedure. At the same time, the Minister of the Interior stated that the State’s official intervention through the Attorney General had never been exercised arbitrarily or abusively, but only under very exceptional circumstances. Finally, the Minister of the Interior turned a document over to the Commission containing a study on this matter. This study was made public by the Argentine Government on September 21, 1979, as an explanation of “reasons for State intervention in the subject governed by Law 22.068.”

d.       Foundation of the Law on Presumption of Death by Disappearance, according to the Government

10.     The document turned over to the Commission by the Minister of the Interior, which was mentioned above, contains what, in the opinion of the Argentine Government, are the fundamental reasons underlying Law 22.068. These are summarized below:

i.        The possibility of State initiation of the procedure for a declaration of absence based on the presumption of death arises from the need to provide a solution for cases involving small children, orphans or abandoned children, whose parents may have died in subversive activities. It is not just a question of property left in the name of the deceased but also that the declaration of absence (with presumption of death) is an essential condition necessary for providing children with the social security benefits to which they may be entitled.

ii.       Law Nº 14.394 of 1954 provides that “when a person has disappeared from his domicile or residence and there is no further news of that person and without that person having left any guardian, the judge may, on appeal by the interested party, designate a custodian for the person’s property, provided that the care of such property so requires.” It further establishes that “the Attorney General and any person having a legitimate interest in the property of the absent party may request a declaration of absence and the appointment of custodian.” The Attorney General’s office represents the State and exercises all judicial action corresponding to it.

iii.       State intervention of this type is practically universal.

iv.      Law 1893 on the Organization of the Courts points out that government attorneys are responsible for intervening in all matters in which a government interest is involved and in all other matters in which the Attorney General must perform functions as provided by the code. The Attorney General must intervene on behalf of the State in cases involving individuals and family rights.

v.       Law 14.394 provides that “the absence of the person from his domicile and residence in the Republic, whether or not the person has left a guardian, and provided that there has been no news of the person for over three years, is cause of presumption of that person’s death.” The recent law shortened the time applicable to the common property system by starting with the more convincing presumption of a relationship between the absence and terrorist events that have occurred in the country. Article 24 of Law 14.394 permits “all those who had some right subordinated to the death of a person in question” to request a declaration of absence with presumption of death.

vi.      It is universally recognized that the State has a fundamental interest in this subject and to give legal authority to the Attorney General to act in these cases is nothing but a legal recognition of the principle. The judge is the person who in the end accepts or rejects the action taken. The declaration of absence with presumption of death does not imply a definitive and irreversible declaration, and common law itself provides for cases where the absent person reappears, how the measures adopted for his property are nullified and the result of family relations.

vii.      Articles 110 to 125 of the Argentine Civil Code, now superceded by Law 14.394, established the system of absence with presumption of death. Article 113 of that Code provided that “the spouse of the absent person, the presumed legitimate heirs, the Attorney General and the appropriate Consulate, if the absent party was a foreigner, may request a judicial declaration of the presumed date of death.”

viii.     Reference is made to the Swiss Civil Code, Article 35 of which provides that “in the event of the death of a disappeared person in danger of death or from whom no news has been had thereafter, the judge may declare the absence by the request of those who are entitled to rights subordinated to his death.” It is stated that this formula has been used, as in Argentina, by the great majority of world legislatures.

ix.       It is stated that all of the laws currently in effect envisage and regulate the institution of the declaration of absence with presumption of death.

x.       All decisions involved in proceedings relating to the declaration of absence with presumption of death, or simply, presumption of death, do not produce the same effects as in res judicata since they do not result from a contentious suit, strictly speaking, and the matter may be taken up as many times as necessary.

xi.       The judicial declaration made by a judge in civil court on the presumed death of a person does not imply in any way that the person’s family members may not start or continue penal actions to bring about an investigation of the person’s disappearance, nor does it imply that they are deprived of habeas corpus proceedings in the event that it is thought that the person is being detained. Both procedures are completely unaffected by a judicial declaration of this nature since the declaration has purely civil effects.

e.       The opinion of the Commission

11.     The Commission has examined objectively the documents it has received from the Argentine Government and those presented by groups associated with the problem of the disappeared. On the basis of these documents and the Commission’s examination of the laws in question, it would like to advance an opinion on this important subject.

In the opinion of the IACHR, the fundamental question is one of ascertaining and communicating in a timely manner with the family members on the situation of the disappeared. It is necessary to establish beyond any doubt whether these persons are still alive or are dead; if they are alive, it is necessary to know where they are; if they are dead, it is necessary to know where, when and under what circumstances they lost their lives and where their remains are buried.

12.     Having made this fundamental point, the Commission would like to add that the laws themselves, especially Law Nº 22.068, are a matter of concern to the Commission, independent of the arguments that have been advanced for them, or the commitment made to the Commission by the Government through the Ministry of the Interior, that they would never be applied arbitrarily or abusively.

The Commission is concerned, for example, that in cases in which the State, in accordance with Article 2 of Law 22.068, has legitimate authority to promote the action of declaration of presumed death through the Attorney General, opposition to this procedure may be precluded. This could be the case of objection by the spouse or the parents of the disappeared person, especially considering that the procedure is not contentious in nature and the interpretation could be that the action is the sole right of the State.

Likewise, it is concerned that after the judicial ruling has been made, the family members of the disappeared person may not be able to initiate action of a penal nature or use habeas corpus proceedings for the purpose of investigating their disappearance. Such an interpretation is possible in view of the declarative nature of the ruling of presumed death. This could mean that the family members no longer have any right to act on behalf of the person who legally is considered dead.

The Commission trusts that such interpretations would not be made in practice. However, it would be desirable for the law itself to state this on its face. It hopes that such laws, which amount to explicit and official recognition of the existence of the problem of the disappeared, will never pose an obstacle to the necessary investigation of this dramatic problem, which, sooner or later, the Government and the Armed Forces will have to deal with.

Given the above, the Commission has no alternative but to adhere to the following paragraph of Resolution 445 adopted at the Ninth Regular Session of the OAS General Assembly:

3.       To urge states where individuals have disappeared to refrain from adopting or implementing laws that would have the effect of impeding investigation of such disappearances.

G.       Magnitude and consequence of the problem of the disappeared

1.       The origin of the phenomenon of the disappeared, the manner in which the disappearances occurred, and the astonishing number of victims, are all intimately connected with the historical events that unfolded in Argentina during the last few years, in particular, the organized campaign against subversion. The violence employed by the terrorist groups was more than matched by that of the State security apparatus, resulting in serious abuses incurred in its attempt to suppress the subversion by dispensing with all moral and legal considerations.

Much of the testimony and information which the Commission has received appears to support the fact that in the campaign against subversion, special units were established with participation, at different levels, of each of the branches of the Armed Forces whose command units were autonomous and independent in their operations.

The activities of these command units were directed against all persons who, actually or potentially, could pose a danger to the security of the State by virtue of their real or presumed ties to the subversive movement.

This campaign, unleashed for the purpose of totally annihilating the subversive movement, had its most sensitive, cruel and inhuman expression in the thousands of disappeared persons, today presumed dead, whom it left in its wake.

It appears evident that the decision to form the command units, that were involved in the disappearance and possible extermination of these thousands of persons, was adopted at the highest level of the Armed Forces, for the purpose of decentralizing the antisubversion campaign. As a result, each of the command units had unlimited power to eliminate terrorists or those suspected of being terrorists.

The Commission is morally convinced that, in general, these authorities could not have been ignorant of the events as they were occurring and did not adopt the necessary measures to terminate them.19

2.       The Commission has received statements to the effect that the Government “has won the war” and that the subversion is now under control. Despite this, however, the problem of the disappeared persons continues. Even though it is true that compared with 1976, 1977 and 1978, there was a smaller number of disappeared detainees20 in 1979, and that since October 1979, the Commission has received no new claims of disappearances. The fact that the Government has not taken all measures within its reach to clarify earlier situations means, in the opinion of the Commission, that the problem is not being taken care of.

Even while the Commission was on its visit to Argentina there was an operation very similar to earlier ones involving the disappearance of an entire family which was kidnapped by security agents. This situation prompted the Commission immediately to intervene with the Argentine authorities.21

3.       The Commission is not able to give an exact number of the disappearances in Argentina. Of all the lists of disappeared persons that have been received, the Commission believes that the most reliable, since it agrees with the number of complaints that it has received, is the list turned over to it by the Minister of the Interior, General Albano Harguindeguy. This list was prepared by the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights, the Committee of Family Members of Disappeared and Detained Persons for Political Reasons, the Argentine League for Human Rights, and the Ecumenical Movement for Human Rights.22 This list includes 5,818 persons who, between January 7, 1975 and May 30, 1979 were “apprehended in their homes, places of work or in public places by armed groups, who prima facie, and almost always stating so specifically, acted under the color of authority, using procedures conducted in the open, with a full display of men—uniformed at times—weapons and vehicles and carried out with a promptness and detail that confirm that those involved were working in a manner typical of the security forces.”

The aforementioned list does not include persons whose families have not presented testimony to the agencies that prepared the list. In the opinion of these agencies and the Commission, this means that it does not include all disappeared persons.

During the Commission’s interview with General Harguindeguy, the General pointed out that his Ministry has carefully examined the list in question and that of this list his Ministry had received complaints of disappearances for 3,447 persons. Of these 2,092 had no information about them, 172 names were repeated, 16 persons were currently detained at the disposition of the Executive, 73 had appeared under different circumstances and 18 had died.

4.       Whatever is the final number of disappeared persons; it is nonetheless impressive and does nothing if not confirm the extraordinary seriousness of this problem.

Furthermore, the lack of clarification of this problem of disappeared persons has affected many families in the Argentine community. The uncertainty and lack of all contact with the victims have upset the families greatly and especially the children who, in some cases, witnessed the kidnappings of their parents and the mistreatment to which they were subject during the raid. Many of these children will never see their parents again and will thus inherit a number of psychological problems from their memory of the circumstances of the disappearance.

On the other hand, many men and women between 18 and 25 years of age are affected by the anxiety and length of time that has passed without any knowledge of their parents or brothers and sisters.

Spouses, both men and women, who have been violently separated, live in an environment of severe mental disturbances, accentuated by the many economic and legal problems that this separation poses for them. Many men and women do not know whether they are widowed or still married. Many of them will never regain personal peace, harmony or security because of the exhaustion produced by their attempts to carry on in a home where the physical and moral absence of the father or the mother is felt every day.

These and other problems cannot be resolved as long as the situation of these thousands of disappeared persons is not clarified in a final and responsible manner.

5.       The Commission took special interest in exhausting all possibilities to determine, without any shadow of a doubt, the truth of the present situation of the “disappeared”. To this end, it made inquiries at prison establishments, military installations, cemeteries, the resocialization center, all those places where there was the slightest possibility that persons apprehended by police or military groups might be held or might have been buried. All of its efforts have been in vain.

These circumstances, combined with the information received by the Commission, lead the Commission to the painful conclusion that the great majority of the disappeared are dead, the causes of which it is not in a position to determine but which, in any event, involve a great responsibility for their captors or those who kept them detained.

6.       After having studied with great thoroughness the response of the Government with respect to all the cases discussed above, the Commission would like to make some general comments:

The Commission cannot fail to point out that during the period 1976-1979, a great number of persons, ultimately recognized by the Government as official detainees, were initially apprehended and held incommunicado in operations identical to those which, according to a great body of testimony received by the Commission, produced the disappearances which remain unexplained.

This information is confirmed by a great number of persons whose detention has been recognized at some point or another by the Government, who have testified to having seen in unofficial detention centers various disappeared persons, and to have seen them at times and under circumstances which coincide with the denunciations received by the Commission.

In a number of cases considered, such as the cases of Mrs. Forti, Ms. Hagelin, and Messrs. San Vicente and Falicoff, and others exhaustively investigated by the Commission, which are mentioned in this report, the explanations of the Government have been extremely inadequate and unconvincing. Most of the Government replies add little of substance, and do not persuasively contradict the occurrence of the alleged events.

In addition, high Government officials have stated that the arrest of persons suspected of subversive activity were carried out on a regular basis by security forces in civilian clothing. Those and other functionaries have implied that the nature of the conflict required the application of measures that violated human rights.

In view of the circumstances, the Commission finds itself compelled to reiterate its conviction that the material facts of the denunciations must be presumed to be true.

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