The World - News from Aug. 23, 1989

Peruvian security forces and leftist guerrillas have both spread “a pall of terror” over the country, Amnesty International said. The London-based human rights organization said hundreds of Peruvians have disappeared or been tortured or killed by government forces in the past 18 months. Over the past seven years, it said, 3,000 prisoners have disappeared while in government custody, and thousands more have died in mass executions and selective assassinations. Most victims are Indian peasants in remote mountain villages, it said, and many appear to have been killed as punishment for guerrilla activity. Insurgents torture, mutilate and murder captives, the report said, citing killings since 1982 by the Maoist Shining Path group.