Peru: Chance for justice at last

Fighting for the rights of those abused during Peru's turbulent past [Never Again!]

CAFOD partner Never Again! has played a key role in bringing Peru’s former President Alberto Fujimori to trial for human rights abuses committed during the country’s 20-year civil war

“The court case against Fujimori is important symbolically because it reminds the world that, whoever you are, you can be put on trial for human rights abuses,” declares Rosa Villarán of Never Again!

Since her husband was murdered in the early 1980s, Rosa has been fighting to ensure that those who committed crimes during the conflict are convicted.

Weak political parties

Rosa has been campaigning as part of Never Again!, which has played a crucial role in pushing for ex-President Fujimori to answer for crimes committed by his government between 1990 and 2000.

As Rosa explains, “The government does little to promote human rights and the political parties are too weak. Fujimori is on trial today in large part because of the pressure from the human rights movement.”

Fujimori is alleged to have ordered two massacres. The first - known as Barrios Altos - saw 15 people executed while holding a barbeque to raise funds for repairing a building in their community.

In the second case, called La Cantuta, nine students and their teacher were kidnapped from their halls of residence and later found assassinated. Fujimori is also accused of torture and corruption.

The current government is trying to pass a law that would grant amnesty to military and police officials who followed orders during the civil war – which could mean that six hundred military officials could walk free.

Never Again! is working to make sure that this does not happen.

Two decades of violence and hate

Peru’s brutal 20-year civil war saw assassinations, car bombs, massacres, mass graves, torture and mass detentions.

In total, fighting between the government and the Shining Path guerrilla group from 1980 to 2000 killed an estimated 70,000 people.

People were persecuted for their political beliefs, for being a community leader or for simply being a poor indigenous farmer.

Fujimori’s trial is so significant because, since Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigated the civil war’s reported atrocities five years ago, little has been done to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Janet Flores’s father was murdered by the guerrillas in the rural highlands in 1994. She says: “They opened fire. They grabbed my father and began to hit him and, when he struggled, they shot him.

"He was last seen alive by the river and before dying he called out: ‘Tell my children that I will never see them again’.”

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission made a series of recommendations that have, on the whole, not been implemented – including documenting evidence that implicated Fujimori in abuses.

Never Again!, supported by CAFOD, co-ordinates annual campaigns through a national network of 600 community groups to highlight the lack of justice and the importance of human rights.

Past human rights violations must be recognised if Peru is ever to move on and avoid falling again into a cycle of conflict.

As Rosa re-iterates: "People’s human rights are at stake throughout Peru today – their right to a fair trial, to their land, children’s rights, women’s rights.

"We are fighting for all these rights by not forgetting what has happened in the past.”

what needs to be done

Never Again! is calling on the government to:

1) give reparations to victims
2) make the state more democratic and transparent
3) reduce the influence of the military
4) reform the justice system so it is impartial and punishes those abusing human rights

Learn more about the Peru Support Group, funded by CAFOD