Impunity returns to Peru
Impunity returns to Peru
Jo-Marie Burt , 31 July 2012
Acknowledging that the crimes committed by the Colina Group death squad were part of official state policy, Peru’s Supreme Court has nevertheless described human rights protests that these were ‘crimes against humanity’ as ‘whining’.
The Peruvian Supreme Court has handed down a highly controversial sentence in a case involving the members of the Colina Group death squad. According to human rights defenders and the victims in the relevant cases, the sentence is a major step backward in Peru’s tortured quest for truth and justice in cases of egregious human rights violations.
The sentence refers to three crimes committed by the notorious Colina Group, a military unit responsible for a series of human rights violations between 1991 and 1992: the 1991 massacre of Barrios Altos, in which 15 people, including an eight-year-old child, were murdered and four others gravely wounded as well as the forced disappearance in 1992 of journalist Pedro Yauri and nine peasant leaders from the community of Santa.
The verdict not only reduces the sentences of renowned criminals, including former security chief Vladimiro Montesinos, but also turns on its head established jurisprudence of previous Supreme Court decisions, decisions by Peru’s Constitutional Tribunal, and rulings of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
The Minister of Justice Juan Jiménez Mayor, who recently became prime minister, criticized the sentence as “shameful.” Eduardo Vega, Peru’s ombudsman, stated that the verdict represented a “serious setback” in Peru’s efforts to achieve accountability for grave human rights violations and called for its rectification. President Ollanta Humala also noted his surprise at the verdict. Human rights groups have criticized the sentence and have stated that they will pursue actions domestically and internationally to challenge it.
More:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/jo-marie-burt/impunity-returns-to-peru
= new reply since forum marked as read
