The ceremony, organized by the Memoria Activa group, started with a minute’s silence at 9.53am the time when the bombing took place and then the names of the victims were read out loud. Despite of the cold weather and the rain, a large crowd of people gathered in front of the AMIA building, in the city neighbourhood of Once. The official ceremony to commemorate the attack was carried out on Friday, with the attendance of government authorities.
"I lere ended the lives of 85 people and for us the life we knew until then; people who were sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, brothers and sislets, grandparents, grandchildren, friends," Memoria Activa leader Diana Malamud said.
"We demand that the oral trial A view of yesterday’s ceremony.
starts now," Malamud said addressing the crowd. "It’s been 16 years (since the blast took place) and the polit ical power doesn’t have the slightest idea of what to do with this matter,", she said.
"The governnu nts of the last 16 years have achieved a result that unites theta: Zero guilty people, absolute. intinmity," the leader said.
Malantnd said that the victims’ relatives have doubts that the legal probe into the blast will move forward; "it’s very difficult for justice to find out now what they didn’t find out in I6 years." "Reaching the truth is beginning to seem impossible," said Malaniud, adding that next year "we relatives will probably he here saying the same things." Mother of Plaza de Mayo Tali Almeida also spoke at the ceremony. "This wasn’t an attack against the Jewish but against the wholeArgentine people," she said. "We will continue together demanding memory, truth and justice, but never taking justice in our own hands." "The time that elapsed makes it more difficult to know all the facts," said Israeli Ambassador Daniel Gazit, who attended the ceremony.
"Those responsible for the AMIA attack, which are Iran and Hezbollah (Lebanese militant group), are free and planning another attack in another part of the world," the ambassador told reporters. Gazit called to fight these groups that spread terrorism and "are still unpunished." Memoria Activa also questioned Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri for appointing former federal police inspector Jorge "Fino" Palacios, allegedly linked to the AMIA blast, as head of the Metropolitan Police. Palacios, who resigned last year, is also indicted in the probe into the tapping of phones of City opposition officials and of Sergio Burstein, head of the association of relatives and friends of the AMIA attack.
I terald stall with news agenríes Buenos Aires Herald