🚀 go-pugleaf

This News Service is posted by the
International Secretariat of Amnesty International,
1 Easton Street, London WC1X 8DJ
(Tel +44-71-413-5500, Fax +44-71-956-1157)
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PERU: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNS THE INTOLERABLE
SITUATION OF INNOCENT PRISONERS AND URGES THE GOVERNMENT TO
RELEASE THEM

Amnesty International has adopted 122 people falsely accused
of terrorism in Peru as prisoners of conscience,  but this is
only a small fraction of the total number of innocent people
who are being detained in Peruvian prisons today.

      An Amnesty International delegation is currently
visiting Peru to launch its report, Peru: Prisoners of
Conscience. The delegation is also holding talks with the
Minister of Justice, Carlos Hermoza Moya, and the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Francisco Tudela.

      ~We urge the Government of Peru to free all prisoners
of conscience immediately and unconditionally. We want to
point out that, for each case that becomes known, for each
case that becomes news,  there are many others who will
remain for ever unknown,~ the human rights organization said.

      These prisoners are women and men who have been
deprived of their freedom without any reliable evidence
linking them to armed opposition groups. This is the
situation of Myriam Guadalupe Galvez Vargas, who has been in
prison, separated from her children, for three years solely
on the basis that she had attended a university course taught
by a professor accused of terrorism-related crimes.

      The anti-terrorism legislation introduced by the
Government of Alberto Fujimori is at the basis of the current
situation. While acknowledging the right of the Peruvian
State to combat armed opposition groups, Amnesty
International severely criticises the current anti-terrorism
legislation on the grounds that it does not respect
international law and contributes to the imprisonment of
innocent people.

      Amnesty International acknowledges that positive anti-
terrorism legislative reforms have been approved, inter alia
the amendment adopted last March which allows for an
acquitted defendant to be issued with a summons rather than
being returned to prison. However,  even though members of
parliament from both the governing and opposition parties
have presented a number of legislative proposals aimed at
resolving the problem of  prisoners of conscience, none of
these has yet been debated in Congress.

Amnesty International insists on the need to respect
international human rights law and urges the Government of
Peru to:

~     release all prisoners of conscience immediately and
      unconditionally;

~     compensate the victims of arbitrary detention; and





~     take the necessary steps to ensure that all persons
      detained and accused of terrorism crimes receive a
      prompt and fair trial.

      Amnesty Internationalos report also highlights the
atrocities carried out by the armed opposition groups Sendero
Luminoso, Shining Path, Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac
Amaru, Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, and, in recent
years, Sendero Rojo, Red Path. The human rights organization
strongly condemns these abuses and calls on the leaders of
these groups to abide by international humanitarian law.

ENDS/
                                                fax.: 44 171
413 5815/5835

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