Human Rights Watch<\/a><\/strong>
\n(Washington, March 22, 2006)\u2014Peru\u2019s military has systematically failed to provide courts and prosecutors with the identities of military personnel under investigation for human rights abuses committed during the country\u2019s armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said in a letter released today to Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo.
\nThe military\u2019s blanket denial that these records exist lacks all credibility. This policy of denial seems designed to cover up abuses and shield those responsible.
\nHuman Rights Watch called on the Peruvian government to ensure that the armed forces fully cooperate with civilian prosecutors and courts investigating human rights violations committed in Peru\u2019s armed conflict, which lasted from 1980 to 2000.
\nThe issue came up most recently amid allegations that presidential candidate Ollanta Humala was involved in human rights abuses, including torture and forced disappearances, while stationed at the Madre M\u00eda military base in the San Mart\u00edn region in 1992 and 1993. When asked for the pseudonyms of the officers stationed at the base, Minister of Defense Marciano Rengifo publicly denied that the armed forces kept such records.
\nThe ministry of defense has long claimed that the use of pseudonyms by military officers was purely informal, and that as a result it has no record of such pseudonyms. Human Rights Watch questioned these assertions.
\n\u201cThe military\u2019s blanket denial that these records exist lacks all credibility,\u201d said Jos\u00e9 Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cThis policy of denial seems designed to cover up abuses and shield those responsible.\u201d
\nIn fact, military records concerning the pseudonyms and identities of military personnel have been uncovered in several instances, Human Rights Watch said.
\nIn one case, a defense ministry official informed a victim\u2019s family that the military had found no records in its files of the pseudonyms or real names of the officers presumably responsible for the victim\u2019s death. But two weeks later, an inspector from the same military region stated in a memo to army headquarters in Lima that 90 pseudonyms had been found in personnel records at an army base at Cangallo, responsible for the province of Vilcashuaman, where the abuses occurred.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s clear that the military did keep records of the identities and pseudonyms of military personnel in some cases,\u201d said Vivanco. \u201cIn all cases, the military should make a serious effort to collect the information and cooperate with prosecutors.\u201d
\nRecords have also been uncovered of a November 1992 interview at the base where Humala was allegedly stationed, conducted by a military officer investigating drug-trafficking allegations at the base. In the interview, Major Jorge Flores Tello gave the names and aliases of several officers at the base, including that of Humala, whom he identified as \u201cHumala Tasso, Ollanta, \u2018Carlos.\u2019\u201d Humala has admitted that he used the pseudonym \u201cCarlos\u201d but claims that there were other officers also known as \u201cCarlos\u201d who are responsible for the alleged abuses.
\n\u201cIt is crucial that the armed forces fully cooperate with investigations of human rights abuses, not only to ensure accountability for those abuses, but also to protect innocent officers from prosecution,\u201d added Vivanco.
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