Peru doubles political violence death estimate

In a chilling final report released today, Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission said 69 000 people -- twice the previous official estimate -- died in two decades of rebel and state sponsored violence that ripped this poor Andean nation apart.

"The last two decades of the 20th century were marked by horror and dishonour for Peruvian society," the commission's President, Salomon Lerner, told a ceremony in government palace as he handed over the nine-volume report.

"The most likely figure of victims is more than 69 000, who died at the hands of subversives and forces of the state," he said, adding the number was "overwhelming."

The commission's report was based on two years of investigations into human rights violations from 1980 to 2000, and nearly 17 000 testimonies. The commission had unprecedented access to internal military documents and also interviewed jailed rebel leaders, ex-presidents and other public figures.

Peru was shattered by parallel wars by Shining Path and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) to impose communist rule. Systematic human rights abuses were committed by the military and police in their response, Lerner said.

Supporters say the report, with its recommendations to ensure similar atrocities never happen again, will help bring justice to millions of victims and heal the wounds of two decades of abuses that were either unpunished or whitewashed. But critics say the commissioners are too sympathetic to the rebel cause to be objective and were already dismissing their findings as biased.

After handing the report to the state, the Truth Commission will present the findings publicly in Ayacucho, the cradle of Shining Path's war, tomorrow. The document is also available at the commission's Web site. - Reuters