Perú: Seven Years after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Servindi, september 11, 2010 - One hundred forty-six women listed in the register of victims of political violence, who should have had access to financial reparations, have passed away in recent years without the State having done a thing to redress them.

This figure, provided by the Demus association, illustrates the harsh reality of the nearly eighty thousand victims and family members that are still waiting for the government to fulfill its obligation to provide and implement a comprehensive reparation plan.

Not only is there a lack of political will to carry out what was established by law, but the State has no policies in matters of justice, truth, inclusion, reparation and human rights in general, that would at least allow a light to be seen at the end of the tunnel seven years after submitting the Truth Commission Final Report.

One of the most painfully axiomatic conclusions presented by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was as follows:

Ninety percent of the victims, clearly identified in Peruvian society as coming from peasant and indigenous communities, who suffered the loss of tens of thousands of relatives, their homes and the legal, economic cultural and social structure of their communities, have had to endure all of this, plus the stigma of being displaced, of being unbelievably categorized as “terrorists” and of surviving in a country whose institutions have turned their back on them.

Today, these same populations, the indigenous peoples, face new threats from the State. President Alan Garcia has placed himself at the forefront of those parties promoting the expropriation of land to be handed over to investors in mining, oil and biofuels. He has unscrupulously enacted regulations designed to undermine the rights of the indigenous communities and repeats with equal emphasis the exclusionary, discriminatory and authoritarian behavior he displayed in the years of political strife.

Legal Prosecution

Of the 47 cases for human rights violation that the TRC recommended for prosecution, some have been joined in a lawsuit by the State Attorney’s investigations. In recent years, more claims have been filed for a total of 62 criminal proceedings, one of which has finally been dismissed.

No progress has been made for some time, and the proceedings remain virtually at a standstill.

What is the current status of these proceedings?

According to the experts, many of these investigations make no headway due to the lack of information on the perpetrators of the crimes, particularly because of the systematic refusal of the Peruvian State, represented by the Ministry of Defense, to provide data relating to the actions taken by members of the armed forces during those years, which led to targeted killings.

The risk, then, is that the investigations will be closed for lack of evidence.

A typical case is that of Putis, a village in Ayacucho in which the armed forces killed 400 villagers, including small children, expectant mothers and elderly people, 26 years ago.

Almost ten years have passed since the criminal complaint was filed, and the ministers and senior military commanders continue to keep a tight lid on the names of those responsible for the massacres. In 2008, with the help of the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF), 92 bodies, 28 of which were successfully identified, were exhumed from a mass grave.

The impunity in these cases seems to be the State’s defense strategy.

On the other hand, there is a risk that Congress and the Executive branch will promote laws and actions to grant amnesty to those already convicted, which would constitute a serious blow to the sentences for human rights violations in the world.

Exhumations

Of the nearly five thousand burial sites, many of which are real mass graves, governments have done next to nothing to recover the remains and return them to their families.

Like the dog in the manger, the State “maintains absolute control of the investigation of the crimes perpetrated by its personnel” (José Pablo Baraybar in an interview with Paola Ugaz), instead of allowing civil society to help find the missing persons.

The families and relatives of the more than 15,000 victims that have disappeared in the country due to violence continue searching and waiting for a coherent answer from the State that takes into consideration human rights.

“Answers about the missing do not exist; they do not know what became of their loved ones and prioritizing the judicial approach as the only mechanism capable of providing answers to the families is insufficient. In other words, if one day justice is ever served, the families will probably never know what actually happened to their loved ones considering that “proof” and “knowledge” are not necessarily compatible terms,” points out Baraybar.

The Comprehensive Reparations Plan

There are seven reparation programs included in Law 28592, the Comprehensive Reparations Plan and its Regulations.

* Individual Financial Reparations

This is the most important claim of victims’ organizations. The campaign to persuade the government to implement this program has been going on for more than two years.

After the decisive march that took place in July of this year towards the Government Palace and the Office of the Prime Minister (PCM) from 14 regions of the country, the Executive branch offered to initiate financial reparations in 2011.

The day after the meeting with the Prime Minister, two regulations were issued creating the Technical Commission by means of Supreme Executive Order (Decreto Supremo) 073, dated July 17, 2010, and Supreme Resolution (Resolución Suprema) 170, dated July 18, 2010.

The Multi-Sectorial Technical Commission is responsible for developing the technical guidelines and methodologies to determine the amounts, payment procedures and payment methods that should be followed for the implementation of the Financial Reparations Program.

The Commission is presided over by Jesús Aliaga (PCM) Raúl Varillas (Ministry of Women and Social Development - MIMDES) and José Rodríguez (Ministry of Economy and Finance - MEF), and has 180 days to present its report. Nevertheless, there is readiness on the part of the authorities to speed up its delivery.

The civil society does not participate directly in the Commission, but it has presented its proposal.

The Prime Minister has announced that the regular resources of the PCM will be redistributed for this matter as follows: 20 million for collective reparations and 20 million for individual financial reparations. Nevertheless, this is subject to the timely delivery of the report by the Commission.

In parallel, the High Level Multi-Sectorial Commission (CMAN) has re-prioritized the list of communities eligible to benefit in 2011, reducing the figure from 340 to a little more than 200 communities.

* Education Reparations

A proposal has been made so that the children of victims may gain access to the Education Reparations Program. The CMAN decided that only the children whose parents died, but not those whose parents were disabled or raped, will benefit from the program. In order to solidify the agreement, a proposal has been drafted to amend Regulation PIR- DS 015.

* Health Reparations

At present, there is no Health Reparations Program. Progress has only been made in its design, but it still need to be validated. The evaluation of the design by the Ministry of Health (MINSA) was scheduled two weeks ago. With regard to mental health care, there are no reports that reveal its scope as part of the reparations program.

* Collective Reparations for the Displaced

The application of collective reparations for the displaced, which consist of the promotion of production projects, has been drafted. The CMAN agreed to distribute a lump sum, originating from donations, to everyone. For now, there is 5 million for this purpose.

* Collective Reparations

This is the main program overseen by the government, and its use for political purposes is not new to our authorities. The government annually allocates 40 million. From 2007 to date, the following regions have been intervened:

In addition to those mentioned, other programs include the following: the restitution of civil rights, the symbolic reparations program and the program to promote and facilitate housing access.

* Official Register of Victims

As of August 20, 2010, the number of victims recorded in the Reparations Council was as follows:

• Book 1: 78,820 individual victims
• Book 2: 5,609 registered communities

The Reparations Council has provided CMAN with several lists of detailed information to initiate the distribution of individual financial reparations, as well as education and health reparations for the victims.

August, Month of Reflection

There are several reasons for reflection this month of August. Sixty-nine peasants from the village of Accomarca were killed by members of the Armed Forces on August 14, 1985. In 2009, the remains of nearly one hundred men, women and children killed in Putis, Ayacucho were officially returned to their families.

On August 22, 1982, seven police officers died at the hands of the Shining Path at the Civil Guard Post in Vilcashuamán. Likewise, 65 people, 25 of whom were Nomatsiguengas, died in the Tsiriari Valley in Junín on August 18, 1993. This August 31 also marks the International Day of Enforced Disappearances.