Obama honours victims of dictators

buenos aires — President Barack Obama paid homage on Thursday to victims of Argentina’s former US-backed dictatorship, admitting the United States was “slow to speak out for human rights” in those dark days.

Obama became the first US president to formally acknowledge the victims of the 19761983 military regime, which declassified documents have revealed was supported by top US officials.

“There’s been controversy about the policies of the United States early in those dark days, and the United States, when it reflects on what happened here, has to examine its own policies as well, and its own past,” Obama said.

He spoke at Remembrance Park, a monument in Buenos Aires to the 30,000 people who were killed or went missing under the dictatorship. He paid tribute to victims’ families.

“Democracies have to have the courage to acknowledge when we don’t live up to the ideals that we stand for; when we’ve been slow to speak out for human rights. And that was the case here.”

Tens of thousands of people joined a noisy demonstration later in Buenos Aires to mark the 40th anniversary of the USbacked coup that brought the dictators to power.

They marched to the din of drums, carrying pictures of victims. Similar anniversary marches were called in towns across the country.

Some rights groups complained Obama had not gone far enough.