Annual AJC Report Concludes Those Responsible For AMIA Bombing May Never Be Identified

American Jewish Committee
Wednesday, 18 July 2001

More than seven years after the worst terrorist bombing attack on a Jewish community outside Israel, the trial of 20 Argentines involved in the July 18,1994 bombing of the AMIA building in Buenos Aires is expected to open in September.

Five of the defendants, four of them senior police officers, have been indicted as accomplices in the bombing, and could face life imprisonment. They are charged with handling the van used in the bombing, which left 86 people dead. The other 15 defendants are facing lesser charges.

But the prospects of identifying who was behind the perpetrators of the bombing that destroyed the main building of the AMIA, the Argentine Israelite Mutual Aid Association, the headquarters of Argentina's Jewish community, remains in doubt. And, there is a possibility that the repeatedly delayed trial may be postponed again as Argentina confronts a deepening economic and political crisis unrelated to the AMIA case.

These are the central conclusions of a forthcoming American Jewish Committee report on the AMIA bombing investigation.

The American Jewish Committee report, "Hoping for the Truth: The AMIA Bombing, Seven Years Later," is the seventh annual report on the investigation of the bombing, which, like the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, remains unsolved.

A year ago the AJC report, authored by Argentine journalist Sergio Kiernan, expressed hope that President Fernando de la Rua, who took office in December 1999, would reinvigorate the investigation, which had been moving at a snail's pace under the previous administration of President Carlos Menem.

As a sign of hope, President de la Rua and most of his Cabinet attended last year the ceremony marking the sixth anniversary of the bombing.

The partial results of an ongoing investigation by a special task force established by President de la Rua to investigate the AMIA and Israeli Embassy bombings will be presented at the upcoming trial.

President de la Rua's efforts contrasts with the posture of the Menem government which had proven to be unwilling or unable to put together a proper investigation of what is regarded by many Argentines as an act of aggression against their country and mass murder against Argentines, writes Kiernan in the new AJC report.

A survey conducted a year ago by AJC and AMIA of Argentines found that only 7 percent of Argentines believe the attack was aimed specifically at AMIA. Fifty-two percent think Jews generally were the target, while 31 percent believe the attack was aimed at all Argentines.

Thus, high hope now is pinned on the pending trial, which the AJC report hopes will lead to new revelations from the defendants about who was behind the AMIA bombing.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org