By Sovereign Hager
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
HUANCAYO, Peru-Three generals and other army officers are on trial for the murders of thirty-seven university students from 1989 to 1993. Generals Manuel Delgado, Luis Pérez, and David Jaime Sobrevilla commanded an army brigade during those years in Huancayo where the Universidad Nacional del Centro is located. Formal charges were filed on March 4th.
The murdered students were allegedly targeted because they were suspected of being connected to or sympathising with the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) or Tupác Amaru Revolutionary Movement guerrillas. The three Generals allegedly ordered former intelligence Commander Col. Elías Espinoza of seizing and killing the students. Ordering deaths are the same charges that led to the conviction of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori for two army massacres.
The National Human Rights Coordinator for Peru told IPS that evidence against the former military officials includes “testimony of relatives who witnessed the kidnappings of their children . . . and who later found their bodies dumped on the outskirts of the city.” The prosecutors also have army operation manuals that describe how to kidnap and kill detainees and “accounts of students who after being hauled in and tortured by the military, managed to regain their freedom.”
Prosecutors allege that the thirty-seven murders took place as a part of a “systemic and generalized practice of kidnappings and homicides.” The Maoist movement Sendero Luminoso was reported to have a strong presence at the University in Huancayo, where it targeted any person opposed to its efforts.
During the government’s struggle against Sendero Luminoso, it entered the University fifteen times and over one hundred people were murdered and kidnapped. After the military’s first incursion on the campus, it set up a “civil action base,” after which student and staff disappearances began. The occupation was legalized in 1990 through a law authorizing the military to stay on campuses if “terrorist elements or groups disturb the peace and internal order.”
Protection has been ordered for the five individuals testifying against the generals who are former kidnapping victims.
For more information, please see:
Rebelión-Generales Enjuciados por asesinatos a 37 estudiantes-5 April 2010
IPS-Generals on Trial for Murders of 37 Students-2 April 2010
Correo-Caso UNCP:Justicia Tras Diesisiete Años-25 March 2010
