By Ángel Páez
LIMA, Oct 17 2006 (IPS)

Retired Peruvian army major Telmo Hurtado, a fugitive from justice who is living in the United States, could escape charges of crimes against humanity if authorities in both countries do not move ahead quickly on the requests for his preventive arrest and extradition.

In a historic ruling, Peru’s Supreme Court authorised on Sept. 23 the extradition request for Hurtado, who years ago confessed to being responsible for the Aug. 14, 1985 massacre of 74 children, women and old men in the Andean highlands village of Accomarca, in the southeastern region of Ayacucho.

“Among the presumed terrorists we capturedàwere children ranging in age from one to eight years,” say the military court records containing Hurtado’s earlier testimony, to which IPS had access.

The officer brought the children together with a group of women and old men in one of the houses in the village. “I ordered the assault group under my charge to open fire, while I threw a hand grenade inside (the house) with the intention of eliminating anyone who might be merely injured. I took the decision to eliminate the injured because there were too many of them,” he added.

“Yes, I set the house on fireàand we stayed there until the fire consumed everything, and made sure that only ashes and blackened bones were left. Then we picked up the shell casings and any other evidence showing that we had been there,” reads the document.

The Supreme Court decision gives the green light to the first case of extradition of a member of the security forces accused of committing crimes against humanity during Peru’s 1980-2000 “dirty war” against the Maoist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrillas.

According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that investigated the political violence, the armed forces killed and “disappeared” more than 7,250 civilians who were not involved in the conflict, many of whom were indigenous people.

No member of the armed forces has been brought to justice so far for the Accomarca massacre.

Hurtado escaped Peru on Dec. 28, 2002, fleeing first to Colombia and then to the United States, just when authorities in Peru decided to reopen the investigation into the massacre.

This year, Interpol (the international police agency) located Hurtado in the state of Florida, where he lives with his family, and the court handling the case initiated extradition proceedings.

After the 1985 massacre, the army court martialed Hurtado, who thus eluded being tried by the civilian courts. His testimony on the massacre committed by the counterinsurgency platoon that he commanded as a second lieutenant was recorded during the court martial.

It took the military justice system nearly seven years to sentence him. On Feb. 28, 1992 he was handed a six-year sentence.

However, during those seven years, there is no evidence that Hurtado spent any time in prison. In fact, he was even promoted to lieutenant, then captain, and finally major. Nor did he serve any time after receiving the sentence.

In 1995, as a result of pressure from victims’ families, the military court summoned him once again to review his case. Hurtado admitted that he enjoyed protection from the army high command, and said the army brass had offered him economic compensation if he refused to speak to the press and declared that he had been acting on his own in Accomarca.

“It is true that out of loyalty to the army, I was ordered not to provide information on what really happened, to prevent the case from taking on a greater dimension,” said Hurtado, according to the court documents.

He then revealed that the Accomarca slaughter of civilians reflected one of the army’s strategies in the counterinsurgency fight against Sendero Luminoso.

“This occurred because it was the modus operandi in the emergency zone and, to be more exact, in the second infantry division, and the high command was fully aware of that,” Hurtado testified.

He also implicated his superiors at the time, including the present head of the joint chiefs of staff, General José Williams, who is currently facing prosecution and is prohibited from leaving the country.

According to the legal investigations, Williams appointed Hurtado to lead the military platoon that killed the women and children in Accomarca, although he denies giving the order to kill defenceless civilians.

The general is considered a war hero for having led the 1997 rescue operation of 71 hostages held for four months by Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) guerrillas in the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Lima.

During the administration of Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), Hurtado received official protection, and was even decorated in 1992, 1994 and 1996. In 1995 he became one of the beneficiaries of an amnesty law decreed for those who committed human rights crimes in the context of the counterinsurgency war. The law was later revoked.

In 1999, with the rank of major, he commanded the Bagua army base in Peru’s northern jungle region, where he carried out operations of forced recruitment of young men who were not fulfilling their compulsory military service.

The local population protested his activities in the area, and his name and the promotions he had received once again came to light. Under growing pressure from international human rights organisations, Fujimori asked him to retire.

When the independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established to clarify the events of the “dirty war”, publicly reported the details of the Accomarca massacre, Hurtado fled to the United States, where he is still living.

Hurtado is a graduate of the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA), which is now based in Fort Benning, Georgia.

The lawyer for the victims’ families, Karin Ninaquispe, who kept the legal process going single-handedly, told IPS that of the 74 villagers killed that day in Accomarca, 30 were children ranging in age from six months to 14 years, 20 were between the ages of 25 and 40, and the remaining 24 were between the ages of 55 and 80. Most of the adults were women, including an 80-year-old grandmother.

Ninaquispe said the Supreme Court also authorised the extradition of one of Hurtado’s accomplices, officer Juan Rivera Rondón, who took part in the operation as well.

“The Court ruling is of far-reaching significance for justice and for the nation, because Hurtado is a military officer who plunged into mourning a poor, defenceless Andean community in a cruel and relentless manner. Now he will have to answer to the country for his crimes,” said Ninaquispe.

“It is now up to the Justice Ministry and the presidency of the council of ministers to issue a resolution authorising the Foreign Ministry to request the extradition of the murderers,” she explained.

Although Peru has already requested that Hurtado be arrested and held in preventive detention for the purpose of eventual extradition, authorities in the United States have not yet responded.

Meanwhile, the deadline for Peru to submit the formal extradition request is approaching. In the past, similar delays have enabled accused individuals being held under preventive arrest to regain their freedom.

“If this case hasn’t moved forward, that’s because the state has defended and harboured those responsible for these crimes,” said Ninaquispe. “I hope this will finally end, so that the families of the victims can have some peace.”

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