PERU PROJECTS!

[Aidan Siobhan Madigan-Curtis]

Hey HIDO HR! I hope that everyone is having a great break!

Here is the information from Gaby Pena, on the projects she is
initializing with Peru-based HR groups! Please read the information on the
groups and then read her blurb on how you can help her with these
projects!

Thanks and happy spring break! :)

Aidan
**********************************
This is the blurb for what's going on with the projects in Peru.

1. Post-CVR projects through Peace and Hope:

Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) submitted its final report to
President Alejandro Toledo in 2003, taking an historic step forward for Peru
and for the advancement of human rights throughout the hemisphere. The report
concluded that more than 69,000 people were victims of political violence in
Peru between 1980 and 2000, a figure that far exceeds the previously accepted
total of 30,000 deaths. Additionally, the report found that 3 out of every 4
deaths were Quechua-speaking rural peasants, the marginalized and forgotten of
Peruvian society. The report attributed more than half of the killings (54%) to
Shining Path guerrillas, 30% to the Peruvian Armed Forces, and the remainder to
rural self-defense groups and peasants “Statistics do not convey the horror and
tragedy” of the violence suffered by innocent Peruvian citizens, said Mr. Lerner
in his comments. The deaths were spread out over two democratically-elected
governments and the authoritarian regime of Alberto Fujimori. Now the tough
challenge is for Peru to face the results. Peace and Hope wants us to help them
with the commission work's follow-up, such as reparations and the mental health
of the victims who collaborated with the TRC. In particular, they need help
with two projects:
○ Establishment of a Training program for judges, lawyers, and members of
the Mesa Jurídica Interinstitucional in Ayacucho, the organism that vies for the
juridical voice of the victims.
§ Need: US$1500
○ Inauguration of MINKA, a mental health program to aid the victims of
political violence.
§ Need: US$10,000 - or any part thereof.
So, basically, we'll probably have to partner with IMPACT in order to start
cooperating with Peace and Hope. In our last meeting, we concluded that the
first (and more feasible) project should deserve our first-hand attention.

For more background info, visit http://hrw.org/press/2003/08/peru082803.htm.

2. Alberto Fujimori Extradition Campaign through APRODEH:

Alberto Fujimori was president of the Republic of Peru between 1990 and 2000.
During his two (almost three) terms in office, grave human rights violations
were committed by Peru's security forces. During Alberto Fujimori's ten year
administration Amnesty International documented hundreds of cases of human
rights violations which included extrajudicial executions, forced
disappearances, torture and ill-treatment, death threats and harassment,
arbitrary detention and unfair trials. When Alberto Fujimori took over the
presidency, the Shining Path, Peru's largest armed opposition group, had
already been operating since 1980 and the Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac
Amaru, Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, since 1984. At the time he became
president emergency zones under military control formed the core of the
government's counter-insurgency strategy. In the ten years prior to Alberto
Fujimori becoming president the term ''subversive'' increasingly came to be
applied to all inhabitants of areas where the armed opposition had a strong
presence or some degree of control. The presumption that entire communities
would be considered collectively responsible for Shining Path actions was
invoked in justification of what amounted to a policy of widespread and
systematic extrajudicial executions and ''disappearance''. APRODEH wants us to
help out with the extradition campaign. In what terms? My impression is that
that's left to us to decide.

For more info, check out these links:
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/americas/peru-qna-1030.htm
http://www.amnistia.org.pe/firmas/enindex.php (Here you can sign the Amnesty
petition online.)


What HIDO-HR can do (NEXT STEPS):

- Find ways by which to fundraise US$1500 for the first Paz y Esperanza Project.
○ OPTIONS: Impact? Grant? HIDO event? Sell something?
- Muster grant-writing capabilities in order to start trying to collect at least
part of the US$10000 needed for MINKA, the mental health-related project for
victims of the human rights abuses and political violence.
- Do more research about the FUJIMORI case. Discuss about it. This could be
followed by different options:
○ Raise awareness on campus? - Invite speakers, write op-eds, articles?
○ Letter-writing?

Contacts:

Ayacucho, CVR, political violence, MINKA, etc. :
- Paz y Esperanza (Ayacucho, Per'u) - www.pazyesperanza.org
○ Germ'an Vargas - gva...@pazyesperanza.org
Post-CVR, Fujimori case:
- Aprodeh - www.aprodeh.org.pe
○ Rosario Narvaez - ch...@aprodeh.org.pe

If you're interested in participating in any of these, please e-mail me
(gpena@fas)!

****Also, if anyone would like to help me out with or learn more about a HR- and
education-related project I'm putting together for a week in Ayacucho this
summer (the end of July, most probably), please don't hesitate to e-mail me at
gpena@fas, too! Your help either from here or in situ will be always welcomed!