Panel Probes Alleged Incineration of People

A Peruvian congressional commission is investigating accounts that a secret underground furnace discovered in the army’s headquarters was used to incinerate people during the hard-line rule of former President Alberto Fujimori, an official said.

“We have three secret witnesses . . . at least two of them indicate they were informed [that people were incinerated],” said a spokesman for the commission investigating Fujimori’s top aide, jailed former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos. It was not clear whether people were allegedly burned alive.

Montesinos is being held in a naval base jail awaiting trial on a host of corruption and human rights abuse charges. Fujimori lives in self-imposed exile in Japan.