In a statement released Tuesday, the Peruvian truth and reconciliation committee reported the death toll of their civil war to be as high as 60,000 people. The civil war, fought in the 1980s and 1990s between the military and the Maoist “Shining Path”, hit indigenous peoples hardest, as they were explicitly targeted by both warring parties. The government’s previous estimates were around 30,000 deaths; this revised number comes much closer to the claims of indigenous peoples. The truth and reconciliation committee interviewed over 18,000 victims in the past two years, and will soon end its work. The commission was originally founded on the demands of indigenous people, but many are now critical of its work; the commission includes no indigenous representatives and is nationally rather than locally focused. Its mandate is to uncover and publicize its findings on the war, submit names for possible prosecution, consider ways to compensate victims, and to offer ideas for how to prevent future atrocities. The commission has so far submitted six names for prosecution, with three facing trials, and proposed broad but unspecified appeals for institutional reform.
