Peru to create truth commission

The commission may cast light on human rights abuses

Clare Marshall reports from Lima

The Peruvian Government has announced the establishment of a truth commission, dedicated to investigating human rights abuses committed in the country over the last 20 years.

Under scrutiny: Former President Garcia is standing for re-election

The actions of Peru's last three presidents will come under scrutiny, and an era of terrorism in which 30,000 people died and 4,000 disappeared.

Rooting out corruption has been a priority for Peru's interim government, which came to power after Alberto Fujimori was sacked as president last November for moral unfitness.

The setting up of this seven-member truth commission will help to fulfil that mandate.

Mourning

Between the mid-1980s and early 1990s, the country was racked by violence between Marxist guerrillas and government troops desperate to enforce the order.

On Friday relatives of the thousands of victims sewed together black garments in front of the government palace in a sign of mourning.

The commission is expected to function for 18 months.

One of the blackest periods of violence that it will examine is the 1996 prison riots, in which 400 Shining Path rebels were killed by the military.

The president at the time, Alan Garcia, is now standing for re-election on 3 June.