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A classified U.S. cable made public five years ago, however, says Fujimori had ordered that there be no rebel survivors. "Because of this, even MRTA who were taken alive did not survive the rescue operation," said the June 11, 1997, Defense Intelligence Agency communication obtained by the independent Washington-based National Security Archive. Fujimori fled to Japan in 2000 as his government crumbled in an unrelated corruption scandal. He was later arrested trying to return and is serving 25 years in prison on corruption and human rights convictions. Under the Fujimori administration, Cano noted, forensic investigators were prevented from analyzing the crime scene. "There were no evidentiary photos, no adequate fingerprints, nothing," she said. Clyde Snow, a renowned U.S. forensic pathologist who helped examine the bodies of all 14 rebels after their 2001 exhumation, said that in the case of Cruz, a single bullet entered through the back of his neck, "which I've always said is the hallmark of extra-judicial executioners throughout the world." Eight of the rebels were shot from behind. "I consider these guys, they were terrorists, breaking the law," said Snow. "But those who were trying to surrender and were extra-judicially killed, now that was a line that was crossed ... they should have been given fair trials." Peruvian courts have been trying four men for allegedly ordering the killings, but the cases have moved at a glacial pace, as the Inter-American commission noted. The defendants include Fujimori's intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, and the former army chief, Nicolas Hermoza. Both are serving 25-year prison terms for ordering killings of civilians. Another defendant, then-army Col. Jesus Zamudio, is a fugitive but managed to renew his national ID card in 2008 and sign his pension rights over to his wife, suggesting that he remains in Peru. The fourth, former army Col. Roberto Huaman, was freed from jail last year because the case remained unresolved. All the slain rebels, on the other hand, were buried in unmarked graves. Relatives of 25-year-old Victor Peceros and 17-year-old Herma Melendez, the other two rebels whose deaths are the subject of the Inter-American court case, said they didn't learn of the deaths until four years later. The relatives say they have been stigmatized and hurt financially ever since. Peceros' mother, Nemecia Pedrasa, said three of her other sons and her husband were jailed for up to four months in 2002 simply for being related to "the terrorist Peceros." Cruz's brother, Edgard, was fired from his job as an attorney that same year after discussing the case with reporters, said lawyer Cano, and wouldn't agree to talk to the AP. Pedrasa said she and her husband, who grow coffee in the eastern jungle, spent all their meager savings to get him and their sons out of prison and travel back and forth to Lima seeking justice. Now, they just want compensation, and peace. If Peceros hadn't died, said his mother, looking older than her 58 years. "I would be able to visit him in prison, to see him, to caress him, because he was the first of my children."
[Associated
Press;
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Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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