Mr. Tom Newman
JINSA
Dear Mr. Newman,
As part of the Argentine efforts to combat terrorism and anti-Semitism, I would like to share with you some paragraphs of the speech delivered by the President of the Republic of Argentina Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to the United Nations General Assembly last Wednesday September 23, 2009.
I also emphasize that following direct instruction from the President, the Argentine Delegation left the room along with the US, France, Australia, Britain, Costa Rica, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy and New Zealand as Ahmadinejad began its hateful, offensive and anti-Semitic rhetoric. In her speech to the General Assembly, the President Fernández de Kirchner took that opportunity to address once again the Islamic Republic of Iran in relation to the terrorist attacks against the Embassy of Israel in Buenos Aires and the Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA).
The Argentine President expressed our claim for justice, that I am confident is shared by you and the American people:
“I cannot help but mention this because my country, along with the United States, have been the target of a global terrorist attack, attacks from international terrorism. The first one occurred in 1992 at the Embassy of Israel, and the second was against the AMIA, where hundreds of people died as a result of those attacks. Today, I am accompanied here in this General Assembly by the head of AMIA, the entity that was blown up, as well as by family members of the victims. In 2007 Mr. Kirchner, who was then the president of Argentina, made a request at this General Assembly, and asked the Islamic Republic of Iran to extradite the officials from that country that were sought by the Argentinean justice system in order to proceed with a thorough investigation and identify responsibilities regarding this very serious attack,”
“Last year in this very forum I once again requested the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran to grant my country’s petition, and pointed out that my country offers all due constitutional guarantees, under the principle that someone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. This is a reality applied in my country: there are guarantees of freedom, of justice, of the administration of justice. However, nothing ever came out of this; on the contrary, this year, one of the officials whose extradition was requested by the prosecutor in the case, was appointed Minister.”
“… We will hear from the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and perhaps he will once again deny some of the tragic events suffered by the West in the Twentieth century. He will probably refer to threats from other types of imperialism, and he will surely invoke God.”
“I would like to say to him that my country, the Republic of Argentina, is – neither throughout its history nor through its conviction – an imperialist country. On the contrary, it is a country that experienced the effects of colonialism from the outset, and also suffered, during the bipolar era, from the Doctrine of National Security.”
“I would like to tell him that I also believe in God, just like he does, even though we might believe in different creeds, but ultimately, I do not think either of us can believe that God can force us to issue threats or to disregard justice.”
“That is why, as President of the Republic of Argentina, I will very humbly once again reiterate this request: that the officials sought by Argentinean justice be extradited, not to be sentenced, but to be judged. They will be entitled to the same rights and guarantees that all Argentinean citizens, as well as foreign nationals, enjoy in our country. These are guarantees granted by democracy and by a government that has integrated the unrestricted defense of human rights into its institutional and historic DNA.”
Sincerely,
Hector Timerman
Ambassador
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