Attorneys and law students from three continents gathered in Washington, D.C. for the film screening of "State of Fear: The Truth About Terrorism," the award-wining human rights documentary about Peru's struggle with terrorism 1980-2000. The film traces the rise of the Maoist Shining Path guerilla movement (Sendero Luminoso) in the 1980s under the leadership of Abimael Guzmán and the ensuing two decades of conflict that resulted in 70,000 deaths and disappearances. A major focus of the film is the period of "fear" under former President Fujimori (1990-2000) after the government arrested the top eight rebel leaders in an apartment in Lima in 1992. The film asserts that the arrests effectively suppressed the violent revolution. Nevertheless, Fujimori persisted to transform delusory internal threats to national security into justifications to disregard democracy and to trample human rights. Riding on a political wave of popularity, Fujimori suspended the constitution, dissolved the parliament, and enacted authoritarian anti-terrorism laws. The film's producer, Paco de Onís, led an engaging discussion on how societies struggle to maintain democracy, defend human rights, and preserve justice in a world engaged in a "global war on terrorism." More

Fourteen years after a secret military tribunal sentenced Maoist Shining Path leader Abimael Guzmán to life imprisonment in October 1992, a Peruvian civil court on Friday handed down the same life sentence. Guzmán's year-long retrial resulted from a 60-page ruling by the Peruvian Constitutional Court in 2003 that declared secret military tribunals unconstitutional and in violation of international human rights standards. Guzmán's lawyer, Manuel Fajardo, unsuccessfully argued that Guzmán should be granted amnesty or the charges dropped based on due process violations. Fajardo also argued that the charge of terrorism should be lessened to rebellion. Guzmán can appeal the guilty verdict in national courts and, if unsuccessful, to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In 2003, the Peruvian Truth Commission attributed 54 percent of the estimated 70,000 deaths and disappearances between 1980 and 2000 to the Shining Path rebel movement. More

Today, human rights activists will meet with representatives on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. to bring attention to the Juba peace talks between the Ugandan government and the insurgent Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels. The activists seek additional humanitarian aid and high-level U.S. support for the peace talks, which are being mediated by the government of Southern Sudan. Peace negotiator Betty Bigombe considers the United States' political involvement as vital to maintaining the ceasefire and to ensuring continued progress of the peace talks. Uganda President Yoweri Museveni has warned that "this is the last chance for these terrorists" because his administration will not negotiate if these talks fail. Complicating the negotiations, four rebel leaders are unable to attend the talks in person for fear of arrests for war crimes indictments issued by the International Criminal Court at The Hague. The Ugandan crisis highlights the tension between the mandate of the ICC to prosecute egregious war crimes and the pragmatic need by governments to grant amnesty in order to achieve peace. One proposed solution would delay the imposition of the retributive approach by the ICC until after domestic approaches to conflict resolution are exhausted. The United States, a vocal critic of the ICC, may support this solution. However, will the broader international community be willing to accept a solution that would grant broad amnesty to human rights violators and that potentially could weaken the authority of the ICC? More