The Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling Monday to extradite to Argentina a former major and his wife accused of kidnapping two children born to mothers held during the ``dirty war.'' The couple's lawyer, Fatima de Bustaller, told reporters he will appeal to the Supreme Court. The Roman Catholic radio station Caritas said former Maj. Atilio Bianco and his wife Nilda Susana Wehrli face charges filed by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo group of abducting a boy and girl and falsifying their birth papers during Argentina's ``dirty war'' of 1976-83. The children, Carolina, 12, and Pablo, 10, were quoted this month in the independent daily newspaper Hoy as saying they don't want to be separated from the major and his wife. ``We don't know anything about those supposed parents we have in Argentina,'' the children were quoted as saying. The Grandmothers group says Bianco, a bone doctor at a military hospital in Buenos Aires, abducted the children shortly after their birth and falsified the attending physician's signature to make them appear to be his and his wife's offspring. Neighbors say Ms. Wehrli was not pregnant at those times. At least 9,000 people suspected of being leftist subversives were abducted by military and paramilitary agents and vanished without a trace during what became known as the ``dirty war'' under military rule in Argentina, officials say. Human rights group say the number is closer to 30,000. The Grandmothers group, an offshoot of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo group that includes relatives who lost loved ones in the ``dirty war,'' says 72 of the 182 children taken from their parents were recovered. According to local reports, Bianco submitted to a blood test in Asuncion last month to determine if he was the father of the two children. Results were never announced. The cases of two other couples also accused of having fled to Paraguay with children suspected of having been born to mothers held in captivity in Argentina are pending, authorities say. Raul Alfonsin was elected Argentina's president in 1983, ending nearly eight years of military rule.
