Pope recalls 1994 Buenos Aires atrocity and calls for justice

Pope Francis has called for the perpetrators of a bomb attack on a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires to be brought to justice.

In a message marking the twentieth anniversary of the bombing of the Amia centre, the Pope condemned the atrocity, which killed 85 people, saying he felt very “close” to Argentinian Jews.

“I have sometimes said that Buenos Aires is a city that needed to cry. I repeat that: we need to cry.

“We are prone to storing our emotions away, not facing up to our stories, our suffering,” he said in a video message played to hundreds of mourners last week. “That’s why it’s so hard for us to find a route to justice, to confront the debt this tragedy has incurred.”

Iranian agents are widely believed to have carried out the 1994 bombing and two years ago Tehran and Buenos Aires agreed to a controversial joint investigation.

The agreement is being studied by a tribunal to determine its legality under Argentinian law.

The Pope, an auxiliary bishop in Buenos Aires in 1994, has long campaigned for justice in the Amia case.