Nizkor Int. Human Rights Team
MEDICAL FEDERATION EXPELLED A DOCTOR FOR HAVING COLLABORATED IN PRACTICES OF TORTURE DURING THE PRE-DICTATORIAL PERIOD IN URUGUAY. FEMI expelled a military doctor for violations of ethics committed in 1972. The Medical Federation of the Interior (Federacion Medica del Interior - FEMI) decided unanimously to expel from their membership doctor Juan Antonio Riva Bugolio, who had been accused of endorsing the tortures and anguish that were inflicted in 1972 on political prisoners in the Batallon de Ingenieros No. 2 of Florida, where he served as a military doctor. The resolution was communicated, among other authorities, to the Medical Cooperative of Florida, where he currently works as Chief of the Paediatrics Service. It is the first judgment of this type affecting that pre-dictatorial period.
THE FEMI JUDGMENT: THE FIRST COMPLAINT AGAINST THE DOCTOR WAS SUBMITTED IN 1987. Doctors Gregorio Martirena (President), Oscar Cluzet (Secretary), Herber Ferreira (Treasurer), and Ricardo Sosa and Luis Noya (members) adopted the unanimous decision. The board of FEMI also has the foresight to bring forth the resolution to the World Commission against Torture, which is based in Austria. According to the judicial decision, issued on April 20th, and which has been corroborated by the daily newspaper La Republica, Riva violated the Principles of Medical Ethics that govern the medical profession. The Tribunal emphatically rejected the allegations of lack of guarantees which were invoked by the defendant aiming at halting the proceedings. "Not a single one of the inherent guarantees of the right to defense has been violated, and for this reason the Tribunal can go deeper into the matter without further delay", added the Tribunal. It also refuted the exception of "res judicata" invoked by the accused, by means of an extensive argumentation. Riva maintained that he had already been tried twice for the same facts and invoked the decision of the National Commission of Medical Ethics and a resolution of the Medical Ethics Tribunal of 1989 following a complaint filed by doctor Ariel Pisano. The first complaint filed against Riva had been submitted by Doctor Ariel Pisano in 1987 and brought before the National Commission of Medical Ethics. The case was closed due to insufficient evidence. Nevertheless, in November 1999, Pisano and other ex-political prisoners continued to file legal actions against Riva. The new complaint was also filed by Elbio Alvarez, Juan Jose Aren, Adelina Schettini, Jose Luis Pietro, Gualberto Videla, Omar Cabrera, Jesus Cuello, Ana Maria Lavecchia, Hector Walter Benitez, Carlos Fernandez Consul and Elizabeth Melgar. Daniel Susena removed himself from the denouncement in December 2000. Analyzing the denouncements in a case by case fashion, the Tribunal rejected the testimony of Pisano because the facts being denounced were the same in both of the judicial procedures. It also refused to admit the complaints filed by Ana Maria Lavecchia and Hector Walter Benitez, considering that both testimonies had already been ruled upon by the Commission of Medical Ethics while dealing with the first complaint. On the other hand, it admitted the remaining ten legal complaints. Having advanced in the investigations, it decided to discard the cases of Juan Jose Aren and Jose Luis Pietro, because of lack of evidence amounting to violation of medical ethics. Regarding the facts that have been proved, the Tribunal affirmed that Riva "admitted to knowing that in his former place of medical employment extreme force was used to extract confessions. He admitted to having seen a foot edema that could have only been caused by the torture method known as "plantones" [permanent hitting of the soles of the feet with a hard stick]. He admitted to only attending to those detained in the infirmary and to not to have looked over those in the detention areas." The Tribunal added "it has been proved that (Riva) could verify the consequences of the "plantones" on Elbio Alvarez and on Elizabeth Melgar, that he observed excrement on the clothing of Susena when he checked him up, that he omitted clinical follow-ups on some patients with tachycardia (taquicardia paroxistica), such as Adelina Schettini, that he also omitted clinical follow-up on Cuello after his return from the Military Hospital, where he received the diagnosis of active pulmonary tuberculosis (tuberculosis pulmonar activa); he did not properly assist Omar Cabrera during a diarrhoea process which should not have lasted as much as it did if the proper assitance had been provided, as well as a regular follow up; he did not prescribe any medicines to treat the asthmatic crisis suffered by Carlos Fernandez Consul, from which he had to recover by himself, and, finally, he did nothing to stop the tortures inflicted upon Gualberto Videla, whose consequences are of a permanent nature. "Yes, I had knowledge". In his declaration, Riva admitted to having observed the consequences of cruel treatment. In addition he affirmed of being aware that in the Batallon de Florida force was used to extract confessions. The Tribunal transcribed some parts of his statement: " It was a difficult time with many terrible acts of which yes I had knowledge. And I talked expressly about it all with the Commandant and we talked about some of the cases of excessive force." And later: "I saw a couple of times edemas in the lower extremities, that is certain. I went then and told the Commandant about it. We spoke about the issue. He told me that I would have to take into account that not all the interrogations occurred in Florida. That many times the patients were transferred to another military establishment in order to be interrogated. "The defendant's own words demonstrate that he had full knowledge of the treatment towards those detained. And in the cases of those of the petitioners where the Tribunal found evidence that the doctor saw them with a series of wounds inflicted by force, the only thing he did to deter this situation was to speak with the Head of the Unit. The Tribunal considers this response to be childish, lacking all logical sense in the light of the principles of experience", it expressed. Regarding this issue, the Tribunal transcribed a question formulated by its president during the interrogation and the answer of the defendant was: "In the beginning of 72, the month I don't remember right now, but it was following the events occurred in the "Treintay Tres" quarters, which led afterwards to the death of Batalla. The Uruguayan medical corporation put forth a declaration expressing that it was known that acts of torture were being committed in the military headquarters. That there were "plantones", kicks, punches and distinct methods of physical abuse and torture and it asked the doctors to keep an eye on this. You did not communicate at any moment, neither to the medical corporation nor to the political authorities, that these facts were taken place, in spite of being in a democracy." Riva answered: "In this case I didn't inform the medical corporation, this is to say, I didn't inform the medical corporation about the problem, as a matter of fact, I never thought of doing so, I think, it's been a while since then, I don't remember." Later, when asked if in confronting such a situation did he ever think to renounce his position, Riva responded: "To me yes, it bothered me a great deal, and I spoke with the Commandant, but do not forget that I couldn't renounce my position at this time because I couldn't have been for 10 years working as a military doctor and when I had a problem of this nature to desert, because at that time it would not have been to renounce, it was desertion of the Military, there was a law that we were in a state of civil war. If I were to say that I was leaving because they are using excessive force...". Responding to this, the Tribunal maintained that "Such an answer could be admitted coming from the lips of a member of the military, but never in the case of a doctor, regardless of his or her military condition." "It shouldn't be forgotten that the declaration of urgent security measures did not judicially give permission for torture and other cruel treatments. Dr. Riva, once he observed this was happening, was under the legal duty to denounce this facts; but he was also under an ethic duty, because as a public official he was bound by article 177 of the Penal Code, which punishes the omission or delay of a public official in his formulation of a denouncement of whatever type of crime of which he had knowledge by means of his office. Given his double condition as a doctor and public official, doctor Riva should have denounced the excessive force whose consequences he saw, and he should have reported these findings either to the medical corporation or to any other authority; it should not be forgotten that these deeds took place while there was still a democratic system in Uruguay. The Tribunal is convinced that when doctor Riva says that he could not have renounce at that point time, because "I couldn't have been for 10 years working as a military doctor and when I had a problem of this nature to desert", it was not the doctor who was speaking, but the military.
THE JUDGMENT The judgment establishes textually: 1. It has been established that the defendant violated ethical norms in relation with the petitioners Alvarez, Melgar, Susena, Schettini, Cuello, Pietro, Cabrera y Videla; the Tribunal must define the sanction to be applied. It should be always remembered that the behaviour of which the defendant has been accused was developed within the factual framework of crimes against humanity, resulting in that he should have proceeded in a manner very different than he did. 2. It is in such circumstances when medical obligations become more intense, when his commitment towards human beings become an obligation, and it is therefore in these circumstances when the intentional defection of such compromises and obligations merit a more severe level of reproach. 3. For this reason the Tribunal does not hesitate to sanction Doctor Juan Antonio Riva with his expulsion from the medical corporation of which he was a member, understanding that only this level of punishment fulfills the devaluation of his actions. Such a sanction is in agreement with already established national and international legal precedents regarding these types of crimes." The Tribunal added that Riva "violated No. 1 of the Regulations in Times of Armed Conflict, adopted by the 10th. World Medical Assembly in La Habana, Cuba, 1956, edited by the 11th. World Medical Assembly, Istambul, Turkey, 1957, and amended by the 35th. World Medical Association in Venice, Italy, 1983; also the Project of norms which regulates the medical treatment of the sick and wounded, particularly during times of conflict (para. 4); Rule 25.1 of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, adopted by the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Geneva in 1955; Declaration of Tokyo (para. 4) adopted by the 29th. World Medical Assembly on October, 1975, in relation with the detainees Adela Schettini, Jes?s Cuello, Gualberto Videla, Carlos Fern?ndez C?nsul y Omar Cabrera".
[Source: Diario La Republica, Montevideo, Uruguay, 25Apr01] ----------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- USEFUL LINKS: -No immunity for crimes against humanity and the principle of command
responsibility. - Special report on the preparation and development of General Augusto Pinochet's detention and Spanish judges' ruling recognizing the principle of universal criminal jurisdiction for domestic courts. http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/chile/juicio/report.html - The Nuremberg War Crimes Trials (Avalon Project) http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/imt.htm#proc - Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) http://www.un.org/icty/basic/statut/statute.htm - Rome Statute of the ICC (as corrected by the proc?s-verbaux of 10 November 1998 and 12 July 1999) http://www.igc.org/icc/html/icc19990712.html
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