Monthly Archives: October 2009

Last week the King Juan Carlos I Center hosted a symposium organized by NYU’s Hemispheric Institute, NYU CLACS and CU ILAS on Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. Titled “After Truth: Justice, Truth, and Reconciliation Commissions, and Related Aftermaths”, the symposium was organized around the opening of two photographic exhibits at the KJCC. One of the exhibits which was originally done in conjunction with and sponsored by Peru’s TRC was titled “Yuyanapaq” which in Spanish means “para recordar” and in English means “in order to remember”. The exhibit that opened at the KJCC is a much condensed version of the original exhibit that was staged in Lima, Peru and featured photographs depicting the “manchay tiempo” or “time of fear”, in reference to the 20 year period of internal armed conflict in Peru. The reality of that time in Peru is that an estimated 70,000 people were killed, many of whom remain disappeared (according to the symposium presentation by forensic anthropologist José Pablo Baraybar, who leads the Equipo Peruano de Antropología, only 2.2% of those have been identified). The photo exhibit is a collection of photos taken by several photographers during that time period, and are meant to foster memory and remembrance of the atrocities that took place. The other exhibit that opened is titled “Si no vuelvo, busquénme en Pútis” or in English “If I don´t return, look for me in Pútis”. Putis is a small village located in the Ayacucho region of Peru. During the “manchay tiempo” the Peruvian Army had established a counter-insurgency post in Pútis, and was responsible for many atrocities carried out against the people of Pútis, sometimes because they suspected them to be terrorists or sympathetic to the terrorists, and sometimes because they desired their goods or herds. The photographic exhibit showcases photographs taken of clothing that had been removed from the victims of a massacre in Pútis carried out by the Peruvian army in which 123 men, women, and children were executed inside of a mass grave. In fact, the grave was dug by the victims, as they had been told it was part of a development project the army was carrying out in the village, and that it would be a trout farm. Once the hole was dug, the soldiers demanded people to enter the hole and then executed them. The army then took their cows. As part of the TRC, an exhumation of the mass grave site, which was right behind the church in Pútis, was conducted in which community members were allowed to observe and be involved in. Some were able to claim their dead based on the clothing that was removed from the bodies. The exhumation was followed by ceremonial burials of the uncovered dead. Later, photographs were taken of the process as well as the articles of clothing that were recovered.

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