From: "Magnus Bernhardsen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Peoples War] U.S. diplomatic papers shed light on Peru insurgency http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters01-24-134744.asp?reg=AMERICAS U.S. diplomatic papers shed light on Peru insurgency LIMA, Peru, Jan. 24 — A raft of declassified U.S. documents chronicling Peru's bloody two-decade war against leftist insurgency could help the Andean nation in its quest to heal past wounds but should not be taken as gospel, Peru's truth board said on Thursday. Forty-one declassified papers were published by the U.S. National Security Archive, a nongovernmental organization affiliated with George Washington University in Washington, revealing U.S. officials' take on the 20 years of violence between leftist rebels and state security forces that scarred Peru with bombings and blackouts and left some 30,000 people dead. The documents hit Peruvian papers as its Truth and Reconciliation Commission, created last year to probe years of violence, this week launched a campaign to exhume mass graves. ''They killed 300!'' proclaimed La Republica -- referring to one document, which detailed how a police hit squad allegedly killed 300 suspected rebels in 1989-90. Newspaper front pages printed copies of dispatches from the U.S. Embassy in Lima to Washington dating from 1983 to 1994, including one in which U.S. officials in Lima said they were told in 1990 by a Peruvian police sergeant about extrajudicial killings of 300 villagers suspected of supporting rebels. ''(The hit squad's) mission was to locate (Shining Path) terrorists ... and kill them,'' the officials reported. The name of the Peruvian sergeant, like many other names and details in the documents, was blocked before declassification. The papers gave graphic accounts of violence by Shining Path and state security forces, including descriptions of villagers' throats being slit before crowds of children or dozens of naked bodies tossed in mass graves. Other documents reported on alleged military participation in civilian massacres and allegations that senior political authorities were linked to human rights crimes. The Truth Commission, which President Alejandro Toledo has said will be key in healing the wounds of Peru's past, has until mid-2003 to present its conclusions. LEADS MUST BE BACKED UP ''These documents provide valuable information and a few leads that could become evidence ... but it is proof that needs to be corroborated by the commission's investigations,'' said Truth Commission Executive Secretary Javier Ciurlizza. ''It's a contribution, but just one contribution,'' he said. Shining Path wound down after 1992, when its legendary leader Abimael Guzman was captured. The smaller leftist rebel group, the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, remained more active until the late 1990s but is also defunct. Ousted President Alberto Fujimori, who fled in 2000 during a corruption scandal, was praised for ending years of conflict. But the declassified documents also cited reports his jailed spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, was behind other human rights crimes, such as the 1991 massacre of 15 partygoers in Lima. In the documents, U.S. officials also discussed a 1986 Lima prison massacre, in which more than 200 suspected leftist prisoners were killed when then President Alan Garcia ordered security forces to quell prison riots. ''There is no doubt that (Garcia) must have authorized the original counterattacks in the prison, and he could not have been under great illusions about the manner in which the military or police would handle this,'' one document said. Garcia, who heads the opposition American Popular Revolutionary Party (APRA), lost out to Toledo in elections last year. Garcia has denied wrongdoing in the jail killings. ''This is nothing new -- it was all subject of trials,'' said Jorge del Castillo a senior APRA party official. Copyright 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
