6 August 2003
Madame President, distinguished members of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, on behalf of Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, I would like to draw your attention to the work of Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Between 1980 and 2000, Peru experienced violent internal conflict that resulted: between 7,000 and 8,000 disappeared persons, between 45,000 and 60,000 killed, and approximately 600,000 internally displaced persons. Thousands more were imprisoned and tortured. The Sendero Luminso and Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) armed insurgent groups, as well as the Peruvian government, were directly responsible for serious and widespread human rights abuses during this period of political violence, which ended in 2000 when President Alberto Fujimori fled the country.
To support national reconciliation, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created by presidential decree in 2001 to investigate and assign responsibility for human rights violations committed between 1980 and 2000.
In November 2002, a delegation from Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights traveled to Peru to participate as international observers in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process. Minnesota Advocates submitted a preliminary report and recommendations to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in May of 2003. Minnesota Advocates’ full report will be published after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission completes its work in August of this year. I would like to briefly summarize our findings and outline our recommendations.
In general, Minnesota Advocates found that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has worked diligently to address its mandate. We applaud the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Peruvian government’s commitment to accept its recommendations as binding. Further, we commend the active participation of sectors of the Peruvian civil society, especially organizations composed of victims, who have taken on the task of justice, truth and reconciliation.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has amassed an extraordinary amount of information since it began its work in late 2001. Since then, it has conducted numerous public hearings and workshops, collected 16,885 testimonies, analyzed human rights violations, initiated a campaign on disappeared persons and advanced significantly towards understanding the causes of the violence and formulating ideas for reparations and institutional reforms.
Minnesota Advocates recommends that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission make specific recommendations to the Peruvian government as to how its final report and recommendations should be implemented. The experience of previous truth commissions shows the importance of this step. At a minimum, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission should recommend that the Peruvian government establish, through legislation, a foundation or organization that will coordinate, execute and promote whatever actions are necessary to carry out the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final recommendations.
Minnesota Advocates recommends that, with regard to the more than 400 mass graves identified in Peru, a special independent investigatory commission be appointed to conduct exhumations in cases where the government is implicated in the death under investigation and cannot conduct an objective and impartial investigation. Immediately upon identification of a mass grave, access to the site should be restricted to authorized persons only, and a guard should be posted 24 hours per day to protect potential evidence from being tampered with or destroyed.
Local prosecutors and police involved in the investigation and prosecution of extrajudicial, arbitrary or summary executions should be provided specialized training in forensic evidentiary analysis, autopsies, evidentiary burdens of proof and international standards governing the protocol for exhuming and analyzing skeletal remains.[See footnote 1] Family members should be accompanied and counseled by mental health professionals throughout all aspects of the exhumation process, and family members' religious needs should be taken into account.
Minnesota Advocates calls upon the government of Peru to prosecute effectively the crimes specifically identified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. To that end, the government must ensure that: 1) judges, prosecutors, witnesses and victims are adequately protected; 2) the judicial selection process is rigorous and that only those candidates who demonstrate appropriate training, aptitude, honesty, impartiality and concern for human rights are selected as judges; and 3) the judiciary receives direct funding rather than its budget being included in the executive branch appropriations.
Regarding the five to six thousand outstanding arrest warrants for people known as “requisitoriados,” which Judges often issued indiscriminately for persons suspected of collaborating with armed dissident groups, Minnesota Advocates recommends that the warrants be changed to “notices to appear.” We propose that requisitoriados be released on their own recognizance or released on bond pending investigation of the charges in the warrant. Further, we recommend that the Peruvian government implement the following procedures consistent with international standards: all outstanding arrest warrants be reviewed by an independent and impartial body, a national police database should accurately reflect the status of all warrants, and any warrant that is not acted upon within six months should expire.
When considering the cases of individuals claiming innocence of convictions under the anti-terrorism laws, Minnesota Advocates urges the Peruvian government to follow international standards governing the treatment of persons who have been unfairly convicted and imprisoned. In particular, persons who are pardoned should have their convictions overturned and expunged from official records. Persons who are pardoned after it is determined that they were convicted because of a miscarriage of justice must be compensated.
We reaffirm the importance of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its recommendations that must be issued by the end of this month, particularly those referring to holistic reparations for victims and the search for justice.
In conclusion, we call upon the Peruvian government to ensure that the important work of truth and reconciliation is carried on after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s mandate ends. We recommend to the Peruvian government that it expeditiously approve a mechanism for implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommendations, a mechanism which must be given the necessary resources that will facilitate the full realization of its objectives, goals and activities.
We urge the government and the legislative and judicial powers, all Peruvian political parties, Peruvian civil society organizations and the international community to support the current efforts of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the mechanism that will be created to implement its recommendations.
Minnesota Advocates has also submitted a more detailed written statement under United Nations NGO Document #18, which is available to the attendees.
Thank you, Madame President and distinguished members of the Sub-commission.
Footnote 1: See United Nations, Manual on the Effective Prevention of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary of Summary Executions at Part III(D)(1) (Model Protocol for the Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary or Summary Executions); see also Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions at para. 11.