From: sangu@igc.apc.org (David Sangurima)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: IPS:Peru Guerillas Lay down arms
Date: 10 Oct 92 02:38:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1473800338:000:2968
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!sangu    Oct  9 19:38:00 1992


From: David Sangurima <sangu>
Subject: IPS:Peru Guerillas Lay down arms

/* Written 12:18 am  Oct  2, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "PERU: FIFTY LAY DOWN ARMS IN BIGGES" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Reference: Disarmament & Peace
Title: PERU: FIFTY LAY DOWN ARMS IN BIGGEST GUERRILLA SURRENDER


lima, sep 28 (ips) -- three weeks after the capture of ''sendero
luminoso'' leader abimael guzman, 50 members of the rival tupac
amaru revolutionary movement (mrta) have surrendered to peru's
military authorities, the prefect of the  province of lamas,
rommel tello, disclosed monday.

tello said the insurgents turned themselves in under a law
granting immunity from imprisonment to guerrillas who lay down
their arms and collaborate with the police in the capture of
other rebels or in encouraging their former comrades-in-arms to
surrender.

up to the mass surrender, 43 guerrillas or collaborators of
the two guerrilla groups, sendero and mrta, had surrendered to
the authorities, according to official sources.

the mrta rebels' surrender was brokered by the catholic church
and was witnessed by various civilian and judicial authorities of
lamas, a heavily forested region in north central peru.

the 50 all operated in the san jose de sisa area where, five
years ago, the mrta staged a series of spectacular military
operations.

in 1987 a column of 150 mrta rebels dressed in olive green
uniforms captured san jose de sisa town, capturing 92 policemen.
three police officials died and a few others were wounded in the
attack, which the mrta invited television cameramen to film.

since then the mrta's guerrillas became the rivals of sendero
luminoso and an alternative to the maoist rebel group, peru's
main insurgent force.

mrta became strong in the tropical valleys of the san martin
department, in the north central forest region, and made inroads
into the huallaga valley, where it competed with sendero for the
control of the lucrative business of providing security for drug
traffickers.

however, tupac amaru lost the battle for the control of
huallaga and was forced to return to san martin, where it has
continued harassing the army and seekling financing from drug
traffickers.

since then, an internal crisis in the mrta sowed division in
the guerrilla organization. the split worsened when its main
leader, victor polay, a supposed advocate of abandoning armed
struggle and participating in parliamentary politics, was
captured in lima.

following polay's capture more and more mrta political cadres
and fighters have been captured or have turned themselves in, a
trend reinforced by the law enabling them to surrender in
exchange for immunity from imprisonment.

the law was promulgated after president alberto fujimori's
self-imposed coup on apr. 5 (end/ips/trd/so/al-cs/kb/92)
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