Ex-Generals and Others Protest Peru Report on Rebel Conflict (Shining Path)

Standing amid his medals and gold-encrusted ceremonial sword, Gen. Roberto Clemente Noel, now retired, says his wartime past is full of heroism and sacrifice.

The way he sees it, his work as military chief in the Peruvian highlands during a barbarous civil conflict in the 1980's stopped rebels from toppling the state. Stepping into the study of his elegant colonial-style home, General Noel showed off proclamations in his honor and his book, "Testimony of a Soldier," in which he defends himself against accusations of vast human rights abuses.

"I am proud of the work I have done," said General Noel, a slight, soft-spoken man of 74. "We protected all the communities."

But his record, and that of several other military officers, has been assailed in a report from a truth commission appointed by the government to examine 20 years of conflict and authoritarianism that ended in Peru in 2000.

The report, issued 10 days ago, laid most of the blame for the war with the Maoist rebel group Shining Path, but concluded that the armed forces were responsible for "generalized and systematic violations of human rights." It also found that many in Peru's powerful political class, from congressmen to Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, were indifferent to the suffering of Peru's Indians, who bore the brunt of the war deaths.

The report, which determined that more than twice as many people died in Peru's war as previously believed, has so far not provided the desired consensus allowing the nation to move forward in its campaign to reinvigorate its young democracy. Indeed, the charges in the report — outlined in thousands of pages recounting massacres and disappearances — have prompted a limited but fierce backlash. That is something that worries government reformers and human rights workers, who say acceptance of the commission's work is essential for Peruvians to reconcile.

Though opinion surveys show most people here are supportive of the commission's work, one congressman has called for an inquiry of commission members, and others have accused the commission of favoring the Shining Path rebels.

Cardinal Cipriani went so far as to harshly criticize the report in a Mass attended by President Alejandro Toledo, saying, "I do not accept it because it is not true."

The immediate criticism of the report has not been very substantial, said Salomon Lerner, the commission's president. "But the commission put out some big ideas that deal with our history, things we need to talk about before we go on with our future." He and others say a judicial accounting is necessary.

Those who are most incensed by the report are former military officers like the retired general José Valdivia, whose conduct as the military chief in Ayacucho Province in 1988 may now lead to his prosecution.

The report concludes that forces under General Valdivia's command began a brutal counteroffensive against villagers suspected of being rebels, in response to an ambush that killed several soldiers. Peasants were killed and their bodies secretly buried, the report said, determining that when authorities opened an investigation General Valdivia and others oversaw a coverup.

The truth commission is providing reams of new evidence to prosecutors involving about 120 former military commanders, along with detailed accountings of a stadium where people were tortured and were not seen again, and isolated hamlets where peasants were executed. Many of the officers, like General Noel and General Valdivia, served as political-military chiefs in the highlands, commanders given extraordinary powers over scores of communities.

"The responsibility of the political-military chiefs must be taken into account," said Ciro Alegría, who led the commission's investigation of the military. "These are people who have never been touched before."

Sitting in his living room, General Valdivia, now a university professor, said his troops did not harm civilians, but rather focused on the elusive enemy. "Our mission was to chase them down, go after them," he said. "Our intention was not to massacre people."

He instead accused the commission's members of being Marxists with ties to Shining Path — a charge that has won over some adherents because of indications that Shining Path is once again stirring.

"Who promotes this biased ideology — Marxist sectors, the human rights groups with a Marxist bent," said General Valdivia, 66. "Instead of being honored for the work the armed forces did, they accuse us for the work we did. That is unjust."

Military officers were once protected by a blanket amnesty enacted in 1995 by the quasi-dictatorship of President Alberto Fujimori. But in 2000, after Mr. Fujimori's government collapsed, the amnesty law was nullified by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights. That prompted prosecutors to charge and imprison members of Peru's most notorious military unit, a death squad known as Grupo Colina.

For General Noel, word that evidence against him would be forwarded to prosecutors came in an Aug. 7 letter. The commission said its "profound and detailed" investigation had established General Noel's responsibility in "violations, tortures and extrajudicial executions" in 1983 at a military base called Los Cabitos.

Stooped and in poor health — he recently suffered a minor stroke and broke his arm in a fall — General Noel is unlikely to be prosecuted, according to Mr. Alegría, the investigator. But he was the top tactician of a scorched-earth policy, and Peruvians should be made aware of that, Mr. Alegría said.

General Noel, who like other military officers testified before the commission, denies all the accusations. Instead, he says, "We had maximum respect for human rights." He also said he was not concerned about being prosecuted.

"I'm not worried; what I am is indignant," he said. "Who did I torture? Who saw me disappear people? Who saw me killing anyone?"

The Shining Path was one of the most horrific movements ever set loose upon this earth. They were homicidal maniacs led by a former professor, they killed and killed and killed, there was no mercy shown, and they paralyzed the Peruvian highland with fear and eventually the entire country.

Their targets were not Peru's soldiers, but rather local police, local militia, towns people, villagers, travelers, anyone unlucky enough to be in their path.

They had brought the whole country to its knees until Fujimori stood up and took the fight to them.

It is a fact of human existence that in any human endeavor you work with tools of flesh and blood, you work with people who are human and fallible. Under Fujimori, Peru fought back, and slaughtered the Shining Path, and captured their leader and finished them.

The people who came after, the ones who were powerless in front of the greatest threat the country had ever seen, now inform us that Fujimori was flawed, and the generals and soldiers who fought the war were flawed, and maybe the war itself was flawed.

This is almost certainly true, and yet it is only on this side of the war that we have the luxury and the privilege of considering these issues at all. Were it not for Fujimori there would be no Peru to judge him, and were it not for the soldiers who went into the field after the Sendero killers there would be no Peru to try them. These soldiers, this president, flawed as they are, are better men than the ones who now sit in judgement, but who in Peru's darkest hour huddled in their offices or lived in safety outside the country.

If you ask men to save you, and die for you, once the storm is past you should judge their actions with at least a little humility. Whatever they did, it was they who went into the mountains to save you, and not the other way around.

Everything you have said is true. Fujimoro was less successful as a leader once he had won the main part of the battle against Sendero, however, which is one of the things that probably encouraged some of these attacks upon him.

But there would be no Peru today if it weren't for him, and many, many thousands more would have been killed by Sendero.

This is definitely a Marxist-inspired attack on Fujimori and the past, and is particularly dangerous because Marxism (using the same rhetoric) has triumphed in several Latin American states recently.

And don't forget that there are a lot of American and European Marxists who hate Peru because of the imprisonment of their darling baby radical, Lori Berenson. She posed as a "journalist," so of course she is a hero to the press, too.

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