Families Bury Dead From Military Massacre in Peru

[Judi Lynn]

August 30, 2009
Families Bury Dead From Military Massacre in Peru
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 6:51 a.m. ET

PUTIS, Peru (AP) -- Victims of the worst military massacre during Peru's war with Maoist rebels were laid to rest Saturday, a quarter century after the slaughter in this remote Andean village. The burials culminated a two-day funeral procession through the southeastern state of Ayacucho, the epicenter of Peru's bloody fight with Shining Path guerrillas from 1980 to 2000.

Dozens of families in traditional dress and carrying flowers walked 30 miles (48 kilometers) with 92 white coffins, many containing only partial remains.

''I lost nearly 15 relatives in the massacre,'' Putis Mayor Gerardo Fernandez told The Associated Press during an interview Thursday. ''We have two feelings. On the one hand, we are in pain for the dead. But on the other, we're happy that we can finally bury them.'' The bodies were recovered from a mass grave last year.

Peru's government-appointed truth commission said at least 123 people were killed in the 1984 massacre in Putis, the largest mass slaying of the government's campaign against the Shining Path.

The peasants -- many of them women and children -- were shot by members of the armed forces after some were tricked into digging their own mass grave, according to the commission. The military suspected the peasants were collaborating with the Shining Path.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/08/30/world/AP-LT-Peru-Massacre.html?_r=1

[Judi Lynn]

1. Peruvians bury mass grave victims

Page last updated at 07:19 GMT, Sunday, 30 August 2009 08:19 UK
Peruvians bury mass grave victims
By Dan Collyns
BBC News, Lima

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/media/images/46291000/jpg/_46291654_007867012-1.jpg

The burials followed a two-day
funeral procession to Putis

Dozens of civilian victims of a 1984 massacre in Peru have been buried, 25 years after they were murdered during a bitter Maoist insurgency. The burials followed a two-day funeral procession for some 90 victims recovered from a mass grave last year.

The killing of more than 120 men, women and children in the highland village of Putis was the worst massacre in two decades of bitter conflict. A group for the victims' families says they were killed by the military.

~snip~
"There have been no steps forward in terms of justice because the armed forces refuse to give the names of the officers who were stationed at the military base here in 1984," he said.

No member of the Peruvian military has been prosecuted for the massacre.

~snip~
Some 15,000 people disappeared between 1980 and 2000.

The remains of a little more than 1% of them have been exhumed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8229177.stm

[Judi Lynn]

2. Peru: controversy over "dirty war" truth commission

Peru: controversy over "dirty war" truth commission

Submitted by WW4 Report on Sat, 08/29/2009 - 15:08. Six years after the final report of the Truth and National Reconcilliation Commission (CVR) on Peru's 1980-2000 "dirty war" against the Sendero Luminoso guerillas, the citizens group Para Que no se Repita (roughly translated as "Never Again") has pledged a new campaign to raise awareness of human rights in the Andean nation. The move comes in response to comments by Defense Minister Rafael Rey calling the CVR's findings "false, unjust and calumnious." (La Republica, Aug. 27; RPP, Aug. 26)

The controversy comes as a ceremony was held in Huanta, Ayacucho region, to commemorate the 1984 army massacre at the outlying village of Putis, where over 100 peasants were killed. Forensic specialists have just unearthed 92 sets of human remains form the massacre, which were carried through Huanta's central plaza in white coffins. (CNR, Peru, Aug. 28)

Of the 15,000 believed "disappeared" in the campaign against the Maoist guerillas, only 769 have been been uncovered, according to the Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF) charged with the continuing investigation. (La Republica, Aug. 29)

http://www.ww4report.com/node/7727