Peruvian authorities said Wednesday they have found the remains of some 50 people, including women, children and elderly, killed 30 years ago, allegedly by police during the war against Shining Path rebels.
The bones were found in five mass graves in the southeast of Peru, the Interior Ministry said.
Locals told prosecutors that these people were killed by special forces agents of the National Police, the ministry said in a statement. The massacre took place in January 1985.
The five mass graves could hold remains of as many as 60 people, the ministry said.
Shining Path was a Maoist guerrilla group that fought successive governments starting in 1980. It was for the most part dismantled in the mid-1990s, although remnants remain active in coca-growing areas of Peru.
The fighting left some 69,000 people dead, according to Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
For the past decade, Peruvian authorities have been looking for burial places of people who went missing during the war, which hit the Andes region particularly hard.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and Peruvian prosecutors estimate the number of missing at around 15,000.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission says there may be as many as 4,000 common graves. In some parts of the Andean region of Ayacucho, there is a grave every three square kilometers (one square mile), the panel says.
Peruvian authorities said Wednesday they have found the remains of some 50 people, including women, children and elderly, killed 30 years ago, allegedly by police during the war against Shining Path rebels.
The bones were found in five mass graves in the southeast of Peru, the Interior Ministry said.
Locals told prosecutors that these people were killed by special forces agents of the National Police, the ministry said in a statement. The massacre took place in January 1985.
The five mass graves could hold remains of as many as 60 people, the ministry said.
Shining Path was a Maoist guerrilla group that fought successive governments starting in 1980. It was for the most part dismantled in the mid-1990s, although remnants remain active in coca-growing areas of Peru.
The fighting left some 69,000 people dead, according to Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
For the past decade, Peruvian authorities have been looking for burial places of people who went missing during the war, which hit the Andes region particularly hard.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and Peruvian prosecutors estimate the number of missing at around 15,000.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission says there may be as many as 4,000 common graves. In some parts of the Andean region of Ayacucho, there is a grave every three square kilometers (one square mile), the panel says.
