Torture trial debate riles Brazil's old soldiers

By Stuart Grudgings

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Retired Brazilian army officers accused ministers of terrorism links and listed their alleged past crimes on Thursday, reacting angrily to renewed debate on whether military-era torturers should be tried.

Unlike neighbours such as Argentina and Chile, Brazil has never prosecuted anyone for the murder and widespread torture of dissidents during its 1964-1985 dictatorship.

But Justice Minister Tarso Genro raised the possibility last month that military-era torturers could be tried, saying their crimes were not political and therefore not covered by the country's 1979 Amnesty law.

Surrounded by paintings of grand martial scenes at Rio's Military Club, several hundred gray-haired former officers -- who would have the most to fear from Argentine-style prosecutions -- heard speakers denounce the government

"This is part of an organized revenge that started after 1979 in our country," said Sergio Augusto Coutinho, a former army intelligence chief. "Those who want revenge still have dreams of socialism of the proletariat. They are demonizing the armed forces," he said.

Coutinho and other officers listed bombings and kidnappings carried out by leftist opponents of the military regime, some of them now senior members of the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former union leader.

Minister Genro himself had militant links in the 1960s and 70s through the Communist Party of Brazil, the former army spy chief said.

Lula's government last year released a 500-page report resulting from an 11-year investigation to determine the fate of military dictatorship opponents. But it has done little to push for prosecutions demanded by victims' groups.