PERU: Catholic Church Hints Support for Potential Peace Talks

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Analysis Abraham Lama

LIMA, Dec 27 1996 (IPS) - The Catholic Church of Peru has given signs that it would support peace talks between the government and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) insurgents holding the Japanese Embassy and over 100 hostages.

The Bishop of Ayacucho, Juan Luis Cipriani, the local Catholic Church leader closest to President Alberto Fujimori, entered the embassy this week where he had a long chat with Nestor Cerpa, the head of the guerrilla commando that seized the embassy.

Cipriani, who made it clear that he was not acting as a mediator, said both the hostages and the captors desired peace. “There is a seed of peace. We must try to see the mark of God that all good men have in their spirits,” said the bishop, who stressed that he was referring to everyone in the embassy.

His speech underlined two basic moral concepts, forgiveness and reconciliation, which under the circumstances could be read as support for the MRTA proposal for peace conversations aiming at the disarmament of the guerrilla group and its conversion into a legal political par, refused to be forced into negotiating at gunpoint. He said the possibility of talks could be explored after Cerpa and his commando of around 20 rebels freed the captives.

Nevertheless, 225 hostages were released last Sunday, and everything indicates that the MRTA and the government are currently negotiating a solution to a situation that could drag on indefinitely, because Fujimori will not order a military rescue operation and it seems clear that the rebels will not kill their hostages.

The embassy visit by Cipriani, the bishop with the closest ties to the government, was produced just when it seemed the rebels and government representatives had gotten bogged down in discussions on petty details.

The bishop urged everyone “to make gestures, no matter how small, because these will pave the way for larger decisions.”

Cipriani is a distinguished member of Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic organisation to which the highest-ranking Peruvian hostage, Foreign Minister Francisco Tudela, also belongs.

According to sources close to the Catholic Church, the MRTA rejected an early offer of mediation by the Episcopal Conference. So when Cipriani obtained authorisation to enter the embassy and celebrate a Christmas mass on Dec. 25, the rest of the bishops did not stand in his way.

The same sources pointed out to IPS that the progressive sector of the Catholic Church had already made contact with Cerpa through Jesuit priest Juan Witch, a hostage who refused to be released on Friday, Dec. 20, because he wished “to continue his mission of peace.”

Shortly after Cipriani’s meeting with Cerpa, the MRTA made another gesture, freeing Guatemalan Ambassador Jose Maria Argote. In a brief statement to the press at the embassy gate, Argote said his release was “in recognition of the peace process taking place in Guatemala,” where the government and the guerrillas will sign a final peace accord on Sunday.