Just a few blocksfrom the Buenos Aires' Congress building, where the street narrows again, the Madres de Plaza de Mayo have their office. Tourists pass by without noticing the building with its small brass plaque reading 'House of the Mothers '. Every day the Mothers meet here to continue their 20-year struggle, begun during the military dictatorship (1976-1983), to establish exactly what happened to their disappeared sons and daughters and to demand retribution against those who imprisoned, tortured and killed their children. July this year marked their 1,OOOth meeting. There are also the Grandmothers, women who lost not only a daughter or son, but also their children's children. Some of these were separatedfrom their mothers and killed, others were given for adoption and, to this day, have no idea of their real parents. Ingo Malcher talked to them for Index TESTIMONY: NELIDA NAVAJAS (AGE 69) 'WHEN som eone disapp ears, it's as if th e earth has swallowed them up. Nobody tells you anything. Cristina had only just got pregnant again [with h er third child], and th ere we re others they took w ho were much further along th an her. Our worry was always, what's going to happen to the little things w he n th ey're born? So instead ofj ust worrying about our own children, getting th em back safely, we start ed searching for their children as well. But to this day, I've never found C ristina's baby. Cristina disappeared on 13 July 1976. The last we he ard about her was in April 1977. I suppos e th ey waited till she had her baby, and then th ey killed her. 'We haven 't had either truth or justice. All we know is th e little we have managed to piece together about what happ en ed to ou r daughters. The government doesn't give us any explanatio ns. N othin g. We kn ow th at all
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