Fujimori extradited, Peruvians left to right celebrate justice.
international |
crime and justice |
news report 
Saturday September 22, 2007 19:53
by iosaf
It's difficult to succinctly represent the emotions in Peru today as the former president Fujimori returns from Chile on an extradition order to faces charges of corruption and human rights abuses. But when both the newspaper of the establishment "El Commercio" and the local (((i))) indymedia node coincide in minute by minute coverage of the event, it surely merits our attention & a passing reminder of at least some of the chapters of Peru's history which may soon see appendices of justice written.
Peru quite successfully in my opinion tackled many of the issues which remained from the 20 years of its history which saw civil war conditions between the state based in Lima and various groups most notably the "shining path" &/or "tupac amaru". The commission of truth and reconciliation's final report ran to many hundreds of pages of cheaply produced paper detailing cheaply spent lives.
http://www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/index.php
I write that the final report "quite successfully" tackled the enormity of the crimes, abuses and genocide simply because Peruvians I have known representative of the tiny "middle class" in South America, meaning with education equivalent to or including 3rd level and decent dentristy & so on - not only read the report, which was sent to every household, but thought it worhwhile enough to send on to friends. Today as "El Commercio" offers its web-readers minute by minute coverage, http://origin.elcomercioperu.com.pe/ediciononline/HTML/....html
videos, background, & the whole pdf file of the extradition case against Fujimori http://origin.elcomercioperu.com.pe/ediciononline/HTML/...N.pdf
I think of one friend who worked both with the Peruvian indymedia node and as a trainee journalist with "el Commercio" who in fact gave me that report on "truth and reconciliation" with the simple explanation that her father a retired military naval officer had thought such revealations would destabilise democracy. That in a nutshell is why we seperate military institutions from political ones.
As I wrote in the introduction, I can't succinctly in a nutshell explain the past of Peru. No sooner would I attempt such a thing, then some commentator would come decrying the role of local military forces, blaming the maoists for their massacres, declaring the absence of the CIA or School of the Americas, demanding condemnation of all sides and ritual shaking of that limp aspidistra.
Enough to say that in Peru today, a wish upon a shooting star made by decent men and women & in their names their children, regardless of political prejudice, left or right has come true..... perhaps thanks to Chile, perhaps simply thanks to their tenacity as a people to move together to a democratic future.
Accordingly at 6pm local time indymedia readers in Lima are called to celebrate justice at the Chilean embassy. http://peru.indymedia.org/news/2007/09/35875.php And they offer their own pdf files just as their fellow citizens on the right wing, files, files, pages & pages, boxes and boxes of accountability. Not of murder pits. Not darkened rooms and burnt villages. This it appears is how justice is written.
http://www.andina.com.pe/edpespeciales/especiales/fallo...i.pdf
The wikipedia file on Fujimoro which I suppose will now provide some commentators sceptical of a belief in justice and accountability and yearning for truth will pick at to say what I have not said -
blame belonged to one and only one side http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Fujimori
my last link is to the "red warrent" issued by Interpol in its english translation for the arrest of Fujimori in 2003, all of 4 and half years ago, since when he lived in a luxury mansion.