Peru commission: Violence toll far higher than previously thought; 40,000-60,000 died, disappeared in Shining Path fight

In a dramatic upward revision of the number of victims, Peru’s truth commission found between 40,000 and 60,000 people died or disappeared in the two decades when government forces battled a brutal insurgency by Shining Path guerrillas, the commission’s president said. Previous estimates held that 30,000 were killed and 6,000 disappeared between 1980 and the early 1990s, the period of heaviest violence. The new figures emerged Tuesday as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission — an autonomous, government appointed group — neared the end of its two-year investigation, which included interviews with nearly 18,000 victims. As a result of cross-referencing data and consulting international experts, commission president Salomon Lerner Febres said “we have felt that there is a minimum of 40,000 deaths and it might be … 60,000 — that’s the ceiling.” This includes 7,000 to 8,000 people who disappeared, the majority at the hands of “the forces of order,” he said. Full Story