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<\/a><\/p>\nLIMA (Reuters) -Peru’s security forces committed alarming human rights violations during anti-government protests last December, a regional human rights body said on Wednesday, adding that the response to demonstrators could be classified as a massacre.<\/p>\n
More than 60 people died in clashes with police and soldiers in protests that broke out following the ouster of then-President Pedro Castillo.<\/p>\n
“There were grave episodes of use of excessive force,” the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) concluded in a report.<\/p>\n
The government has denied it committed abuses during the protests and said it is collaborating with investigations.<\/p>\n
President Dina Boluarte, who replaced Castillo, later on Wednesday dismissed the group’s conclusions.<\/p>\n
“We reject the supposed findings of extrajudicial killings and the ‘massacre’ description,” she said at a press conference.<\/p>\n
IACHR said a large number of people were killed and injured by gunfire, mainly in the Andean regions of Ayacucho and Puno, where people demanded new elections and Boluarte’s resignation.<\/p>\n
The violence “might also amount to a massacre,” the report asserted.<\/p>\n
“There were serious human rights violations that must be investigated with due diligence and an ethno-racial approach,” said Margarette May Macaulay, head of the IACHR, which is the human rights arm of the Washington-based Organization of American States. “The deaths could constitute extrajudicial executions.”<\/p>\n
Bolaurte played down the wording of the IACHR’s report, saying it did not “confirm” the occurrence of human rights violations, but that they “could have happened.” <\/p>\n
The report affirmed that rights violations took place.<\/p>\n
The commission visited Peru from Jan. 11-13, and met with relatives of victims, government officials and civil society representatives.<\/p>\n
The commission’s report follows a Human Rights Watch publication, which concluded that Peru’s security forces were responsible for protest deaths.<\/p>\n
In January, Peru’s attorney general opened an investigation against Boluarte, along with three of her ministers, on charges of genocide, homicide and serious injuries.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Valentine Hilaire; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Grant McCool)<\/p>\n
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