Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

DIMENSIONS: A JOURNAL OF HOLOCAUST STUDIES
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squelch even the slightest expressions of antiintegrationist agitation. The massacre at
the Santa Cruz cemetery was a clear statement of the Indonesian government’s determination
to continue its repression of East Timor, and to maintain its ruthless control over
the territory.
Dimensions: A Journal of Holocaust Studies. Established in 1984 by the Anti-
Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, Dimensions was the successor to Shoah, founded by
Rabbi Isaac (“Yitz”) Greenberg of the National Jewish Resource, New York. The very title
of Dimensions indicates its focus: exploring the subject of the Holocaust from as broad and
varied a perspective as possible. Dimensions is now published online.
Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA). Following the 1973 right-wing military
coup in Chile by General Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006), DINA (Chile’s National Intelligence
Directorate) coordinated the “disappearances” and killings which took place in
Chile between 1973 and 1979. In the months immediately following the coup, thousands
of individuals were murdered, and between 1973 and 1979, hundreds—primarily political
activists, trade unionists, and peasants—“disappeared” following their arrest by the
security forces of the army, air force, navy, and carabineros (uniformed police). All of the
victims were considered to be “enemies” of the regime. In August 1977 the dictatorship
closed DINA and replaced it with the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI), the
euphemistic name of the Chilean secret police.
Direct Responsibility. A person may be held individually and directly responsible for
graves breaches of the Geneva Conventions, violations of the laws or customs of war,
crimes against humanity, and genocide, if he or she plans, instigates, orders, carries out, or
otherwise aids and abets in the commission of any of the aforementioned acts.
Dirty War. In certain cases where authorities carry out arbitrary arrests, torture, executions,
“disappearances,” and/or sporadic massacres against particular groups of people,
the actions are referred to as “dirty wars.” The murderers can be, and often are, a mix of
regular military forces, police personnel, paramilitary/militia units, death squads and/or
vigilantes. Among some of the more infamous “dirty wars” in the latter half of the twentieth
century were the extrajudicial killings of suspected supporters of guerrillas in
Guatemala between 1960 and the mid-1990s, the murder of dissidents in Argentina from
the late 1970s through the early 1980s, and the Russian effort to put down rebellion in
Chechnya from the mid-1990s to the late 1990s.
Dirty War, Argentina. Known in Spanish by its direct translation (La Guerra Sucia),
or more colloquially El Proceso (the process), the “Dirty War” took place between 1976
and 1983 when Argentina experienced a period of harsh military rule. It has been estimated
that between eleven thousand and fifteen thousand people were killed during this
time as a result of extrajudicial killings perpetrated by the military regime. One of the
most notorious of the killers was naval captain Alfredo Astiz (b. 1951), who commanded
a detention center in Buenos Aires—the Escuela Mecánica de la Armada (Navy Mechanics’
School)—from which operated a murder squad known as Task Force 3.3.2. This squad was
one of several operating from the Mechanics’ School; overall, the college may have been
responsible for half of all those killed during the Dirty War. The murders took place
because the victims were known (or suspected) to be opponents of the regime. In most
instances they were arrested, tortured, and then “disappeared”—the practice of detention
without trial and murder without due process giving the victims their nickname of Los
Desaparecidos (“the disappeared ones”). Often, as documented cases show, military heli-