Victim of military dictatorship identifies torturers
Rio de Janeiro - Truth Commission holds a public hearing on Casa da Morte, a clandestine torture center. In the photo, Inês Etienne Romeu, the only survivor. 
The National Truth Commission held a public hearing on Tuesday (Mar. 25), at the headquarters of the Brazilian National Archives, regarding the so-called Casa da Morte (Portuguese for “house of death”), a clandestine torture center used by the military in the 1970’s, during the administration of presidents Médici and Geisel. “We’ve been successful in proving that it existed and that it was the product of deliberate action by the Brazilian government to make human rights violations a state policy. We’ve managed to identify a list of torturers who worked at the Casa da Morte and compile a list of victims who were there or disappeared,” declared the coordinator of the commission, Pedro Dallari.
Dallari explains that the Casa da Morte was a result of the Rubens Paiva case. Rubens Paiva was a federal deputy who was tortured to death in 1971. His case, Dallari goes on to say, “showed forces of repression that there was a risk in carrying out those torture and murder operations – part of the extermination policy – in facilities that were not clandestine. The Casa da Morte was the first of its kind.”
The report presented by the Truth Commission during the public hearing is based chiefly on the testimonies of Inês Etienne Romeu, former head of the left-wing movement called Popular Revolutionary Avant-gard, the only survivor from the Casa da Morte.
Kidnapped in São Paulo on May 5, 1971, she was taken to the torture center and was systematically beaten, raped, and subjected to psychological torture and malnutrition for 90 days. Etienne attempted suicide twice during the period, and was forced to serve eight years in jail after leaving the Casa da Morte. Originally she was sentenced to life imprisonment, but the Amnesty Law reduced jail time to eight years in connection with her participation in the abduction of Swiss Ambassador Giovanni Enrico Bucher in 1970.
Inês Etienne, now 72 years old, was present at the hearing, but was unable to speak due to a brutal act of aggression she suffered at home, which remains unclarified. Accompanied by her sister Celina Romeu, she was given standing ovation at the National Archive. “Your mission is a heroic one. You have nothing else to fear. You’re a winner,” said her sister, who also read from a letter the tragic story of Etienne’s family after she went missing, considered dead and subsequently arrested.
In spite of the difficulties, Inês Etienne was able to recognize six torturers in photos taken on March 15 this year: Freddie Perdigão Pereira, who has been identified as a cruel torturer and one of the perpetrators of the attack in Riocentro; Lieutenant-colonel Rubens Paim Sampaio (retired); Infantry Sub-lieutenant Ubirajara Ribeiro de Souza (retired); Civil Police Commissioner in Petrópolis Luiz Cláudio de Azeredo Vianna; and Antonio Fernando Hughes de Carvalho, aspirant officer and interrogator.
She further identified nine left-wing activists who reportedly died at the Casa da Morte: Carlos Alberto Soares de Freitas, Mariano Joaquim da Silva, Aluízio Palhano Pedreira, Heleny Telles Ferreira Guariba, Walter Ribeiro Novais and Paulo de Tarso Celestino da Silva.
The total number of victims from the Casa da Morte may reach 20, according to Pedro Dallari. The priority of the Truth Commission is now to ascertain what victims were killed in that building and what has become of their dead bodies: “The list of victims is the most important goal of the commission. To locate people missing and discover what happened to them. The Casa da Morte was a key center for torturing and killing political prisoners and making them disappear.”
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira / Augusto Queiroz
Fonte: Victim of military dictatorship identifies torturers
