My father the killer

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“Did you actually kill hundreds of people, Dad?” This is certainly not a question that many people feel the need to ask their parents. But for a group of young women in Argentina, it was one they could no longer ignore. Their fathers have been accused, held under trial and in some cases sentenced for some of the worst crimes in Argentina’s history – all members of the military and police forces during the country’s last and brutal dictatorship, that kidnapped, tortured and killed thousands of people over a period of seven years. Analia is the daughter of Doctor K, condemned for torture and other human rights abuses. Paula’s father was a secret intelligence office said to be behind home raids in which political dissidents were taken to clandestine prisons and later “disappeared”. Together with a dozen others, they are now part of Disobedient Stories, a newly-formed group of “relatives of perpetrators of genocide”. Who are these women who decided that showing public support for human rights causes was a way to redefine themselves as human beings and make peace with their past? What’s the relationship with “the killer in the family”? How do they negotiate their presence in the public space in a constant state of tension with the victims of their fathers, some of which refuse to have them “on the same side”? The BBC´s Valeria Perasso followed them on their journey to become a voice in the ongoing public conversation about human rights to help heal the country – and themselves. (Photo: Paula with her father. Credit: Historias Desobedientes)