Witness History7 Juli 2025

Argentina’s 'trial of the juntas'

In 1985, Argentina’s former military leaders were put on trial accused of kidnapping, torturing and murdering thousands of their own people.

The ‘trial of the juntas’ was the first major prosecution of war crimes since the Nuremberg trials following World War Two. Between 1976 and 1983, around 30 thousand people disappeared or were murdered in Argentina during the so-called Dirty War.

Military leaders claimed the victims were left wing guerrillas plotting terrorist attacks against their dictatorships, but most weren’t terrorists. They were trade unionists or protesters opposing the regime.

Luis Moreno Ocampo was an assistant prosecutor during the trial and spoke to Jane Wilkinson about the case.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo speaking at the trial, 1985 Credit: AFP/AFP via Getty Images)

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(2000)

When Dian Fossey was murdered

In 1985, American gorilla expert Dian Fossey was murdered in her cabin at the research station she established in the mountains of Rwanda. Lucy Burns spoke to Kelly Stewart in 2013 who worked alongsid...

15 Okt 10min

Washoe: The chimp who learnt to sign

In 1970, Washoe the chimpanzee was widely recognised as the first non-human to learn a human language. She was taught American sign language in a revolutionary experiment led by psychology professor...

14 Okt 10min

Harry Harlow's monkey attachment studies

In the late 1950s, psychologist Harry Harlow conducted a series of experiments on baby rhesus monkeys which would become some of the most controversial in modern science.Using wire models as surrogate...

13 Okt 10min

The first monkeys to survive space travel

On 28 May 1959, the USA sent two monkeys, Able and Baker, into space.They were the first living creatures to survive a space flight.It was a watershed moment for the American space agency NASA and its...

12 Okt 10min

The most successful Paralympian in history

Trischa Zorn-Hudson is the most decorated Paralympian in history.Competing across seven games, Trischa - who has been blind since birth - won a remarkable haul of 55 medals.In that time, she also saw ...

10 Okt 9min

The boy behind the creation of the Winnie-the-Pooh books

When the first Winnie-the-Pooh book was published in 1926, few could have imagined that the stories of a honey-loving bear would capture the hearts of readers across the world. Author A.A. Milne based...

9 Okt 10min

How rats were trained to clear landmines

In 2004, the world's first team of mine-detecting rats passed accreditation tests, opening the way for them to be used in humanitarian demining operations. The project was the brainchild of Belgian re...

8 Okt 10min

The mirrors that lit up a dark Norwegian town

In October 2013, people in the small Norwegian town of Rjukan experienced winter sunshine for the first time in history.This was thanks to the arrival of an unusual invention - giant mirrors high up o...

7 Okt 9min