> Activist Mailing List - http://activist.cjb.net > > Peru Reports 4,000 Disappeared >======================= > > LIMA, Peru (AP) -- More than 4,000 Peruvians, most of > them peasants taken away by soldiers on suspicion of > being leftist guerrillas, disappeared between 1980 and > 1996 and were never heard from again, according to an > official government report released Friday. > > Peru's first official report on the ''disappeared'' > came after a three-year study by the human rights > ombudsman's office. > > The report, signed by Ombudsman Jorge Santistevan, > calls for a repeal of the blanket amnesty granted in > June 1995 to all military and civilian personnel > engaged in the fight against Peru's leftist > insurgencies. > > A spokesman for Peru's Defense Ministry declined to > comment on the report. > > The report said that 72 percent of the documented > disappearances occurred in the 1980s during the > governments of former presidents Fernando Belaunde and > Alan Garcia. The remaining cases occurred during the > first six years of President Alberto Fujimori's > decade-long rule, the report said. > > Fujimori announced in September he would step down > next July following special elections after a > corruption scandal erupted around his now-fugitive > former spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos. > > The report said 4,022 people disappeared. The > ombudsman's office said human rights groups have > provided names of an additional 2,342 missing people > but their cases are yet to be verified. > > The report backs up charges from Peruvian and > international human rights groups that Peruvian > security forces made a regular practice of kidnapping, > torturing and murdering peasants suspected of > involvement with the deadly Maoist Shining Path > guerrilla movement. > > Peru's war with the Shining Path and the smaller Tupac > Amaru Revolutionary Movement left more than 30,000 > people dead, including rebels, members of the security > forces and unarmed combatants slain by both sides. The > violence dropped off sharply in the early 1990s > following the capture of key rebel leaders. > > ''Disappearances'' at the hands of the guerrillas was > relatively rare, with only 50 cases attributed to the > rebels, the report said. > > Most of those who disappeared were young men between > the ages of 15 and 34, largely Quechua-speaking > Indians from the impoverished highland states of > Ayacucho, Huancavelica, Junin and Apurimac, where 75 > percent of the cases were reported. Women accounted > for 12 percent of the victims. Forty children under > the age of four also were listed, as well as 98 cases > involving children between the ages of five and 14. > > > __________________________________________________
