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Congressman Javier Diez Canseco, who twice suffered unjust imprisonment under military dictatorships between 1968 and 1971 while occupying student leadership posts at the Catholic University in Lima, addressed the San Martin gathering and declared his support for the Ad-hoc Commission.

"Amnesty, in fact, is only half the solution," he said. "It pardons from punishment, but does not annul the sentence. The person still has the criminal charges on his or her police record. Nor do these people receive compensation from the state for lost income and property."

A vote by Congress to overrule Fujimori's decision to dissolve the Ad-hoc Commission seems unlikely, since the president's party controls a majority in the legislature. Canseco estimates that, if such a vote were held today, only 40 of the 120 legislators would vote against the chief executive.

See our earlier stories in Christianity Today's, "Imprisoned Evangelicals Dispute Accusations of Terrorism" (Feb. 9, 1998), and "Peruvian Evangelical Released from Prison" (July 13, 1998)

See also the coverage in World magazine, "Maximum Security | Falsely accused as Shining Path terrorists, Christians in Peruvian prison look to a just God" (Mar. 27, 1999) and "Peru's Hostage Crisis: Caught In the Crossfire" (Feb. 22, 1997)

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December (Web-only) 1999, Vol. 43