Among Neighbors:

Violence and Reconciliation in Peru

On August 12, 2003, the Commissioners of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission submitted their Final Report to President Toledo and the nation. After two years of work and almost 17,000 testimonies, the TRC had concluded its task of examining the causes and consequences of the internal armed conflict of the 1980-1990s.

Among the most striking conclusions in the Final Report are the number of fatalities - 69,280 deaths, three times the number cited by human rights organizations and the government prior to the TRC - and the responsibility for these deaths. In the section of the Final Report regarding accountability, the Commissioners state that the Shining Path guerrillas (Senderistas) were responsible for 54% of the fatalities reported to the TRC.

Our Research Associates are following the implications of this statistic, which supports what villagers in the department of Ayacucho told Praxis affiliates during their previous research in the region: "Jesús Cristo, between brothers we have killed." In contrast to the findings of other truth commissions - which have generally determined that the armed forces and police were the overwhelming perpetrators of human rights violations and massacres in their respective countries - the violence in Peru was in great measure carried out by civilians.

Praxis stresses the importance of understanding the forms of violence both suffered and practiced when addressing peace building and reconciliation in the post-war period. Without minimizing the atrocities carried out by the armed forces, this was a war fought between "intimate enemies" - between neighbors, family members, communities. There is a gap between political elites who have gone the record stating they will not dialogue with the "assassins of Shining Path," and rural villagers who do not have that luxury. It is one thing to live far from the battlefield and another to interact each day with neighbors who took different, and frequently lethal, positions during the war.

In our post-TRC research, we are exploring the micropolitics of reconciliation practiced at the communal and intercommunal levels in Peru. Research Associates are investigating the factors that facilitate the reconstruction of social relationships and coexistence in the aftermath of fratricidal violence, thus developing recommendations to support local peacebuilding in post-conflict societies.

Additionally, Praxis is studying the impact of the reparations program being developed and implemented in Peru (Programa Integral de Reparaciones-- PIR). Our Research Associates are interested in the following questions:

     · How do various sectors of Peruvian society envision symbolic reparations, and what are the 

       possibilities and limitations of this form of redress? 

     · How do state entities and non-governmental organizations attempt to implement the

       recommendations submitted to the Peruvian government by the TRC Commissioners?

     · How do the numerous "associations of victims affected by the violence" that organized prior to

       and during the TRC phase lobby for reparations and what is their role in Peru's democratic

       transition? 

     · What can we learn from the Peruvian experience that can inform reparations and redress in

       other post-conflict societies?