Peru's Dispossessed Look Homeward

...And the authoritarian basis of his government has prevented him from building a broad-based alliance against Shining Path...

...For me, Lima was like another world," recalled Saturnino, a boy who fled his Ayacuchan village at the age of eight with his mother and three sisters...

...After a two-day visit, the majority of the group went back as planned to their temporary homes in Huamanga and Lima...

...Military hand-outs to the poor ("civic action programs") won't do the trick...

...Most of the latter group settled in the sprawling shantytowns that encircle Lima, staying with earlier migrants to the capital until they were able to settle into small places of their own...

...there is life...

...Army massacres of families and entire autarky and "encircling the city from the countryside" was growing...

...By 1990, displacements were mostly due to Shining Path's violent tactics against peasants organized in army-led defense patrols...

...A short while after their arrival, the group came together in an assembly, at which the head of the local Political-Military Command was present...

...The dead were left with their throats slashed and tongues cut out...

...Shining Path has not been defeated...The country is not yet pacified...

...If the Fujimori government is sincere, it must not only deliver on its promises to pacify the country by 1995, but it must also help tens of thousands of Peruvians whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed by a cruel war fed by social misery and ethnic exclusion...

...Shining Path has killed hundreds of peasants in this fashion, for the "crime" of organizing defense patrols and for allegedly collaborating with the armed forces...

...But as most of the internal refugees of Peru's 13-year-old war have found, their new homes offered nothing of the sort...

...With the capture of Shining Path mastermind Abimael Guzmin, along with a number of other key leaders, the mystique that gave Shining Path an image of invincibility has yed...

...I'll side...

...The next day they returned to their village to find their homes and harvests burned, and their friends and family killed...

...Social workers who assist Peru's internal refugees say that on numerous occasions, displaced families have been forced to flee their supposed safe havens...

...Here there is atmos- with Peru's indigenous peasantry organizing phere...

...Whether or not the military commander's assent to this demand was sincere, the mere fact that such a dialogue took place at all is evidence of an emerging tenuous alliance between the military and dozens of peasant communities in the Andean highlands...

...This profound sense of uprootedness explains why so many internally displaced people profess such a strong desire to return to their homelands...

...Nonetheless, the issue of return is on the table...

...Limehios see themselves as superior, and when I was in school nobody wanted to play with me just because I am from the sierra...

...Shining Path's strategy of provoking polarization between themselves and the army has been largely successful-with the ironic result, however, that most peasants have sided with the army...

...He has failed to incorporate any meaningful development assistance to the poor into his counter-insurgency program...

...Another incentive to return is the considerable insecurity which persists in areas of supposed refuge...

...e areas that have been y destroyed," says Molina of the Catholic ocial action office...

...One group travelled from Lima to Huamanga, where they met up with their former neighbors...

...Is been captured, but the oblems continue...

...A resettlement process requires a well-thought-out plan that incorporates development initiatives and reconstruction aid with basic security guarantees...

...People may feel that Shining Path is no longer all-powerful, but they have not evaluated the true situation...

...Even the teachers treated me badly because I didn't pronounce Spanish very well...

...A small Vol XXVII, No 1 July/August 1993 9UPDATE / PERU group of 10 families, however, villages were common, especially developme decided not to leave...

...According to the Center for Promotion and Development of the Population (CEPRODEP), 70% of Peru's displaced people do not meet their basic needs, and 15% are indigent...

...Internal refugees also face monumental barriers in new cultural contexts that add to the trauma of forced displacement...

...side has n Guzmin ha security pr guarantees people if th "I under desire of th their home Rebaza, as tor of SUY :nt organization that has r several years with the population in Ayacucho -and that assisted in the visit to Nufiunhuayasi-is actively encourption of return...

...They are forced to eke out a living as street vendors or day workers, never sure of the next day's meal, living in quiet desperation in a profoundly racist society that has long considered its indigenous peasant population the cause of its underdevelopment...

...us formul indeed still afraid to return...

...Why should I be afraid...

...The t has no plan to assist in In addition, the countryot yet been pacified...

...Those lucky enough to escape fled into the mountains...

...vho work with internal xpress more caution...

...have historically been silent...

...After confronting those dark moments that no one wanted to remember, the villagers renewed their conviction to permanently return sometime in the future...

...ut until recently, the persistent violence in the countryside precluded the possibility of return...

...The cause of their displacement has varied over time...

...I'm stay- during 1983 and 1984...

...It has been noted, moreover, that it is quite convenient for Fujimori to promote a resettlement process, which lends legitimacy to his counter-insurgency strategy and suggests that the pacification process is moving ahead smoothly...

...candidate in political science at Columbia University, and is currently engaged in fieldwork in Peru...

...The language barrier, and the stigma of being "cholo"-a derogatory name for dark-skinned Peruvians of Indian extractionmake it even more difficult to find a stable job...

...Their ingrained racist atti- aging the c send for my children in Huamanga tudes contributed to military bru- trying to p soon...

...Those who have fled the violence, often with nothing other than the clothes NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 5 o .< Jo-Marie Burt is a Ph.D...

...It made me sad, because it was like a desert where there were only houses and cars, and no trees...

...The internal refugees of Peru's brutal war between Shining Path and the state security forces-in international lexicon the "internally displaced"-are mostly poor peasants from the Southern and Central Andes, though in recent years peasants from the North and indigenous people from the jungle have also been forced to flee their homes...

...sives, and Shining Path regularly preys on refugee settlements, demanding food and shelter, and sometimes settling scores...

...To people require economce to help reconstruct :s and their farms...

...Recent signs from the Fujimori Administration in favor of a resettlement process may be little more than political opportunism...

...Reconstruction aid and basic security guarantees-neither of which is present in Peru-are the two basic conditions for a successful resettlement process...

...The armed forces considers individuals of peasant extraction likely subverReconstruction aid and basic security guaranteesneither of which is present in Peru-are the two basic conditions for a successful resettlement process...

...There were long moments of silence, then tears and hugs...

...And in the context of Peru's economic crisis and neo-liberal state cutbacks that hit the poorest the hardest, economic possibilities for the displaced have shrunk dramatically...

...How can the defense patrols, with little more than three Winchesters, confront Shining Path's sophisticated weapons...

...Most analysts point to these successes to explain Fujimori's continuing high popularity rating, despite the deep economic recession...

...Another group embarked on the long journey-across mountains, time and cultures-to Lima...

...Moreover, the extreme politicization of the military, exacerbated by politically motivated dismissals and promotions-largely the handiwork of Fujimori's closest advisor, Vladimiro Montesinos-has resulted in a series of small-scale rebellions within military ranks...

...The festive mood of the journey was dispelled once the caravan reached its destination...

...In Quechua (duly translated for the military commander), the peasants reproached the army for its past abuse of authority, and demanded that the Commander and his troops respect them and their organizations...

...We are romote a small number ojects, which will help ate concrete proposals National Plan of Return t-too-distant future," explains Isabel Coral, director of CEPRODEP, and herself a refugee of the violence...

...Others decided to form defense patrols to protect themselves against Shining Path, and ironically, many actively sought army support in this endeavor [see "The Rondas," p. 11...

...But the fact of the matter is that Fujimori continues to focus on a military solution to the problem...

...But given the harsh conditions in their supposed sanctuaries, most displaced people desire to return to their villages rather than settle into their places of refuge...

...Soldiers, worked fo ing," said a young woman named largely mestizos recruited from displaced Rosa, who was accompanied by coastal cities, had little contact and Lima her husband...

...tality against the highland of pilot pr Most refugees, however, are population...

...During this period, peasants-while still fearful of the army-also began to flee from Shining Path...

...So it was noteworthy when, this past April, over 100 peasants from qNuiunhuaycco-Patahuasi decided to organize a return visit to their village to investigate the situation, with the goal of organizing a fullfledged return within the next two years...

...But the fact that resettlement is even being discussed in local forums and newspapers is a striking change in a war in Peasants being mobilized for a self-defense patrol in Huanta, which the victims Ayacucho...

...Everyone was so moved to be back in their community after so many hardships...

...But my greatest sadness was the way I was pushed aside here in Lima...

...From there, they continued on to their old village...

...It does not seem coincidental that the government-after a decade of silence on the displaced-began talking about assistance at the precise moment that an international mission of the International Group of Voluntary Associations brought several specialists to Peru to study the situation of the internally displaced...

...there is space before being sent to the country- cco-Patahu to farm and to feed my goats...

...It was a kind of collective catharsis," said one observer...

...By pushing the theme of return, Coral argues, the government may be induced to commit resources to refugee resettlement...

...The 241 survivors fled their village in search of safe haven-joining an exodus of over half a million Peruvians in the past decade...

...stand completely the ie displaced to return to lands," says Ana Maria social worker and direc"ASUN ("we have hope" 10NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 10UPDATE / PERU in Quechua), an organization that provides various social services to internal refugees in Lima...

...Many peasants, especially women and children, are monolingual Quechua speakers, or at best have a minimal command of Spanish...

...But we are concerned that the issue of return is being taken too lightly...

...And while the army has indeed engaged in egregious human rights abuses, many peasants have felt an overriding need to protect themselves from Shining Path's brutal attacks...

...CEPRODEP, a been destroy Others v refugees e "These ar completel Veronica Church's s return, the ic assistan their home governmen this sense...

...8UPDATE / PERU on their backs, have few resources to make it in these urban centers...

...The anonymity of these cities, they thought, would surely provide them with some tranquillity...

...Because they were forced to flee without notice, many displaced people do not have their identity cards, necessary for even the simplest transaction and required to obtain formal employment...

...While By the mid-1980s, peasant resis- toward a more people are seriously consid- tance to Shining Path's logic of in the no ering returning to their homelands, no one can argue that conditions are propitious for a full-blown resettlement process...

...She is the co-author of Caught in the Crossfire (Peru Peace Network, 1992...

...What can the State offer these ey return...

...Fujimori can certainly point to important successes in the counterinsurgency war, including not only the capture of Guzmin, but also the virtual dismantling of Shining Path's Central and Metropolitan Lima Committees, and the reestablishment of control in the prisons, once used as Shining Path indoctrination centers...

...In the early 1980s, most internal displacement was caused by the army, which failed to distinguish between the local peasant population and Shining Path cadres, and consequently considered every indigenous peasant a potential subversive...

...For Coral, this may be the opportune moment...

...One group fled to nearby Huamanga, the capital of Ayacucho, where a swelling population of displaced people has doubled the town's population in less than a decade...

...Each person came face to face with the memories of what had forced the community to flee: the death of friends and family, the destruction of homes and fields, the loss of animals and belongings...