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Peru police release Shining Path prisoners
UPI ^ | 1/2/2004 | Ricardo Sanchez-Serra

Posted on 01/14/2004 4:56:54 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe

"What's the president's name?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know what Peru is?"

"No."

These were the surprising answers of a native Ashaninka released by the Peruvian police from the remnants of the guerrilla group Shining Path in the country's central jungle.

All of those rescued, scores of children as well as adults and elderly, displayed severe symptoms of malnutrition, infections and parasitic infections due to the peripatetic and inhumane treatment during years in the heights of the Vilcabamba mountain range and deep in the rainforest. The police also retrieved hundreds of natives that were hiding from the "Senderistas," having left their land when their leaders were assassinated 17 years ago.

The rescued Ashaninkas, one of the poorest ethnic groups of Peru, received tent fabric for shelter, axes, machetes, poles and clothing, boxes of tuna, salt, pasta, rice, sugar, beans and laundry soap as well as cooking oil and biscuits. A boy was astonished with a Coca-Cola given to him by a police officer, recalling the successful Australian film of the 1980s, "The Gods Must Be Crazy."

The dire social situation of the released Ashaninka population has prompted the formation of a private and state institution multi-sectorial committee to try to find an immediate solution to their plight. The committee includes the municipalities of the jungle areas, civil defense, the National Institute of Natural Resources, the ministries of Health and Agriculture, Caritas (a Catholic Church social organization), the International Committee of the Red Cross, the German Service of Technical Social Cooperation, the Japanese Embassy and the Amazonian Center of Anthropology and Practical Application, among others.

The recent Final Report of the Commission of Truth and Reconciliation concluded that at least 6,000 Ashaninkas have died because of terrorist violence over the last several decades.

Using information from Ashaninka families and patrols, as well as from members of the Direction Against Terrorism, known as Dircote, authorities equipped with satellite telephones used helicopters to land reinforcements to track and defeat the militants. It was during one of the missions that the authorities uncovered the Ashaninka's plight of slavery; many of them fled and led a fugitive existence, eating grass and sleeping in the open to elude the extremists who wanted to force them into their ranks.

The encampments were sighted from the air by the Minister of the Interior Fernando Rospigliosi, who flew over the zone to verify the information and the effectiveness of the operations. The operations destroyed several of the Shining Path's encampments. With the destruction of the last sites, the authorities believe they have isolated the Senderistas, because their encampments served as food-production centers.

One aspect of police strategy is to isolate the guerrillas from the civil population. From testimony gathered from the Ashaninkas, the Senderistas not only used trees and caves in the jungle as shelter but also used the natives as human shields.

The police continue making intense efforts to locate more kidnapped natives or those who fled into the jungle and are leading a precarious existence, fleeing from the death, terror and desolation that the rebels left in their wake. The authorities have known since 1989 of the rebels' forced recruitment and kidnappings of women and children and selective assassinations.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: amerindians; ashaninka; balkans; communism; fujimori; genocide; icg; latinamerica; nativeamericans; peru; racism; senderoluminoso; shiningpath; slavery; soros; toledo; warcrimes

1 posted on 01/14/2004 4:56:54 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Wow, The "shining path" doesn't seem very shiny.. All their crap about "the people", "freedom from oppression" and "progressive thought leads to freedom" seems to be about as truthful as their models Kim Il Jong and Fidel Castro.
Bah, they sound just like the morons over at Moveon.org.
We just hven't found their "work camps" and "political re-education centers" yet.
Of course we will know all about them if we get someone like Hillary in the WH... but it will be "good for the children"... so its OK.
2 posted on 01/14/2004 5:42:29 PM PST by cavtrooper21 (Coffee, the elixir of life..or something resembling life.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
I'm sure Lori Berenson would approve.
3 posted on 01/14/2004 6:03:51 PM PST by randog (Everything works great 'til the current flows.)
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: cavtrooper21; RussianConservative; Destro; *balkans
>>>>>of course we will know all about them if we get someone like Hillary in the WH... but it will be "good for the children"... so its OK.<<<

You are very close.

Soros helped get rid of Fujimori and to install narcoterrorists into new Peruvian government. The cost? Paltry $1M, less than 20 kilos of heroin.

Toledo will revive SanderoLuminoso as viable asset of the International drug trade.

In U.S. Soros bankrolls Drug legalization programs, secretly bankrolls Wesley Clark and openly attacks Bush.

Being forewarned is being forearmed ! You don't have to wait to see Hitlery in WH to learn what is going to happen.

Learn who Soros is. Start from Free Republic's keywords : SOROS ; ICG

5 posted on 01/14/2004 8:01:07 PM PST by DTA (you ain't seen nothing yet)
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To: DTA
Fujimori was teh best thing that eevr happened to Peru. I never understood why he was ousted and why the Clinton administration was so eager for him to go. Corruption? via Latin American standards Fujimori was spotless.
6 posted on 01/14/2004 8:27:36 PM PST by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorism by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)
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To: Destro
I agree. Fugimori was able to elliminate terrorism in Peru after 20 years of turmoil. The Bush Administration should do what Fugimori did, put them all in jail and forget about them.
7 posted on 01/14/2004 9:14:53 PM PST by AgThorn (Go go Bush!! But don't turn your back on America with "immigrant amnesty")
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To: Tailgunner Joe; seamole
It looks like freedom is spreading. Terrorists have been put on notice.
8 posted on 01/14/2004 11:18:04 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: seamole; Cincinatus' Wife
I have this horrible vision now in my head, of thin, parasite-ridden children being beaten about the head and berated with "We're doing this for YOU, you ingrates!"

I don't know how these thugs get any popular support at all.
9 posted on 01/15/2004 12:58:17 AM PST by hellinahandcart
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To: seamole
When I read the title, I immediately thought the police were releasing the thugs, and I thought "Ya gotta be kidding me.."
10 posted on 01/15/2004 1:00:56 AM PST by hellinahandcart
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To: hellinahandcart
Poor people are easily duped and enslaved.
11 posted on 01/15/2004 2:39:49 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Destro
And for the record, that last reply to you was actually from my wife (Lily4Jesus) who is always forgetting to change logon's and sign her messages .... no matter, the point is that she was born and raised in Peru, and witnessed all the atrocities of the "Shining Path", so her agreement with you has a lot more merit than mine anyway!! ;-)

Agthorn
hubby to my Peruvian Princess, Lily4Jesus
12 posted on 01/15/2004 5:35:00 AM PST by AgThorn (Go go Bush!! But don't turn your back on America with "immigrant amnesty")
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To: AgThorn
Thank you. Whatever his faults Fujimori wanted to help Peru.
13 posted on 01/15/2004 10:07:50 AM PST by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorism by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)
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To: seamole
Thanks for the ping. Communism is evil.
14 posted on 01/16/2004 4:12:53 AM PST by kristinn
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