Reply #6: Unburying the Evidence of Biggest ‘Dirty War’ Massacre [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

Unburying the Evidence of Biggest ‘Dirty War’ Massacre (Inter Press Service)
Angel Paez
June 2, 2008


Lima, May 30 (IPS) - It was not hard to find the remains of the victims, some of whose bones were actually exposed to the elements. But it took 24 years for the people of the highlands village of Putis in southern Peru to get a response to their insistent requests for exhumation and identification of the remains.

In 1984, 125 men, women and children were shot to death by army troops after being tricked into digging their own mass grave.

The biggest single massacre of civilians in Peru’s 1980-2000 civil war is just now coming to light, thanks to the unflagging efforts of the victims’ families.

Since May 17, 60 bodies have been found, including those of 10 children between the ages of six and 10.

On a visit to the area in November 2006, this reporter found that the relatives were going from one public agency to another, asking them to exhume the victims of the massacre of Putis, located in the district of Santillana in the southern province of Ayacucho.

The death toll for Peru’s two decade armed conflict was put at 70,000 by the independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR). But in order to qualify for the reparations provided for by law, victims’ families must prove that their loved ones were murdered by the guerrillas, the army or paramilitary groups.

More:
http://www.streetnewsservice.org/index.php?page=archive_detail&articleID=2797