Families of the victims from the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres rejected the apology offered by jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori today.
During interrogation at his human rights trial, Fujimori said “yes, I ask forgiveness, now that we are in this process, from all of the victims, including those victimized by the armed forced as much as those by the MRTA and Shining Path. It hurts my soul, how many cases I’ve personally seen.”
“There is no way we can accept this hypocritical gesture from the former president,” Gisela Ortiz, a representative of the families of the victims, told Radio Programas radio.
“Fujimori had 15 years to ask forgiveness, but he didn’t do it and on the contrary he rewarded the authors of the killings by giving them a pardon law,” she said, referring to the 1995 Amnesty law.
On Wednesday, Fujimori said the Amnesty law was intended to bring stability to Peru after 15 years of internal conflict with Shining Path and MRTA guerrillas. The law provided immunity to military, police and civilians who were convicted or charged of human rights violations.
Fujimori is charged with authorizing the 1991 murder of 15 people in Lima’s Barrios Altos district and the 1992 murder of nine students and a professor at La Cantuta University. The victims were targeted by the paramilitary death squad Colina group as Shining Path collaborators.
He faces up to thirty years in prison if convicted.
