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TWO brothers, aged seven and nine, told psychiatrists they slowly, coldly tortured a two-year-old girl to death - a revelation that has Argentines debating whether to do away with a law prohibiting the prosecution of minors for heinous crimes.Judge Marta Pascual said the children confessed to slaying little neighbour Milagros Belizan in a shantytown south of the capital."They understood her pain but it did not move them," Judge Pascual said after meeting with psychiatrists who examined the boys. "In some form it gave them pleasure."Little Milagros disappeared from her home in the poverty-stricken Almirante Brown neighbourhood on Sunday. Her family found her body in a vacant lot 10 blocks away.She had been stripped naked, beaten and strangled with telephone cord that was found wrapped around her neck.Argentine law prohibits the prosecution of anyone under 18 years old.Instead, such juveniles are generally held in youth homes until they reach 18, when they are released without further punishment. Sunday's killing has many Argentines calling for much harsher punishments - including prosecuting them once they turn 18."But if it were up to the people living in the shantytown where that little girl was murdered, they would kill the two boys," lawyer Gregorio Badeni said.Other Argentines disagreed that child killers should be tried like adults."These two boys are victims just like the poor girl they killed," family psychologist Cristina Castillo said.Ms Castillo said the responsibility for the crime lies with the boys' parents and the society in which the boys were raised.Neighbours said the boys were frequently beaten by their mother and had been out of school for two years. They were often seen throwing stones at other children and passing cars. "They are boys who evidently had violence for an example," the judge said. "I don't know if a boy's mind can know whether it was a crime. But they did know they had done something wrong."The boys' grandmother said she repeatedly pleaded with the boys' mother to stop beating them.But only after the girl's death did the neighbourhood appear to take action: A mob rose up, setting fires and throwing rocks, after the girl's tortured body was discovered in a pit. Police fired rubber bullets at the roiting mob to prevent more bloodshed.Neighbours later told police they had seen the boys with the little girl and then leaving the pit. Confronted, both boys then blamed each other before confessing, authorities said.As in the days of Noah...
