This week the Feature Article talks about terrorism and political violence in Peru, focusing on the Shining Path guerilla group. This story was inspired by the news that 71 people were kidnapped in Peru. This story and other events of the past week can be found in the News Highlights.

CONTENTS:

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK:

1. World
2. Africa
3. Americas
4. Asia Pacific
5. Europe
6. Middle East
7. South Asia
8. Cyberterrorism and Information Warfare
9. Finance
10 Human Rights
11. Law and Legal Issues
12. Narco-terrorism
13. Transportation
14. Weapons of Mass Destruction
15. Recently Published

FEATURE ARTICLE:
The Shining Path

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK

1. World

Leaders attending the Africa summit of the World Economic Forum warned that Africa could not be ignored and that the real problems had to be addressed by the global powers if they want to sustain that power.

Despite talk of diplomacy, relations between the US and North Korea are hardening. North Korea threatens to build a nuclear arsenal to deter a hostile US and to reduce the costs of its conventional weapons program. The US and neighboring countries have increased naval patrols and ship inspections and have choked off hard currency earnings, including weapons exports.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has verified China's transmission statistics for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and has removed the travel advisory in four provinces and all cities except Beijing. WHO praised the huge public health efforts that were made to contain the virus. There is concern in Toronto around the emergence of a new cluster of cases. In affected countries, the economic impact of SARS has been greater than that of terrorism.

June 12 marked the second World Day Against Child Labor. UNICEF and the International Labor Organization pointed to the 1.2 million children trafficked every year, generating revenues of $12 billion, and called for cooperative cross-border efforts to stop this heinous practice.

2. Africa

The Africa summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF) focused on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) plan for economic development. More than 60 delegates from 40 countries attended the meeting. The Executive Director of UNICEF told the meeting that the wellbeing of children was the most important indicator of progress and that child-centered standards for health, education, equality and safety should be the major measure of achievement. A WEF report on governance ranked Botswana as the least corrupt African country, followed by Tunisia, Gambia and South Africa. At the bottom of the list were Nigeria and Chad.

Algeria has released fifteen Berber activists ahead of talks to resolve the long-running ethnic unrest.

Burundi's government and the rebel Conseil national pour la Defense de la Democratie -Force pour la Defense de la Democratie (CNDD-FDD) have held peace talks. CNDD-FDD has not participated in the ceasefire agreement previously signed between the government and other rebel groups.

As the first peacekeeping forces arrive in Democratic Republic of Congo, bloody ethnic clashes have continued. The UN force is small and has a mandate that permits only limited intervention. Although fighting continues in several parts of the country, government and rebel groups continue to discuss the establishment of a transitional government by June 30. President Kabila has become the first President in the country to pay his taxes.

Guinean police in a rural district shot dead a man accused of drug trafficking. Local residents said the charges were false and attacked the police. The police station was burned down. Two people were killed by the police.

In Liberia fighting has escalated during peace talks, with the capital Monrovia under assault on two fronts. French Special Forces have evacuated several hundred foreigners have been evacuated. President Taylor's suggested exchange of peace in return to withdrawing the indictment against him has been rejected by Sierra Leone's war crimes court but Taylor has nonetheless backed a ceasefire.

Mauritanian government forces beat back an attempted coup. Details of the rebel motives are unclear, but the most common suggestion is that Islamist militants opposed to Mauritania's recognition of Israel, The heavy fighting represented the most serious challenge to President Maaouiya Ould Taya since he took power in a 1984 coup.

Namibia has announced it will produce inexpensive HIV/AIDS drugs locally.

In northern Nigeria, religious riots have killed fifteen people. Nigeria is featured in a Special Report by the Financial Times, published June 10 http://www.ft.com/nigeria2003

Rwanda has rearrested 5,770 genocide suspects after fresh human rights allegations were made against them. They had been provisionally released earlier this year.

Sierra Leone rebel leader Foday Sankoh of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) is seriously ill and in need of medical aid abroad. Several countries have been contacted but so far none has been willing to accept his presence.

Factional fighting in northeastern Somalia has killed six.

In the self-declared republic of Somaliland, the opposition party has now accepted the results of the April presidential election they had previously disputed.

South Africa has resumed the trial of 22 alleged members of the right-wing Boeremag, accused of various charges of treason, terrorism, sabotage, murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, and 43 other charges related to weapons and explosives.

Although Tunisia has been found by WEF among the leaders in good governance in Africa, they have been criticized in a new Amnesty International report. Amnesty's report finds systematic human rights abuses and the use of arbitrary arrest of government opponents.

In Uganda, rebels of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) killed four and injured 25 in a landmine explosion.

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) appeared in court in shackles, but used good humor during the treason charges to inspire his followers. A second MDC leader, Welshman Ncube, has also been arrested. The detentions without bail follow a week of mass protests. Since this, public strikes have been banned.

3. Americas

At the annual meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) representatives of 33 nations shared their concerns over economic difficulties and resolving issues of social justice and human rights. Only the US had a different agenda, with Secretary of State Powell calling for a democratic transition in Cuba and the end of "tyrants, traffickers and terrorists".

Colombia has been named the most dangerous country for labor in a report by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. They cite 184 Colombians killed last year for belonging to a trade union, of a total of 213 such deaths. Colombian right-wing paramilitary group United Self Defense Forces (AUC) have demobilized 40 child soldiers.

Cuban President Fidel Castro led a massive march of hundreds of thousands of people past the Spanish Embassy to protest EU support for US-backed sanctions proposals.

Jamaica is disbanding the Crime Management Unit of the police, a paramilitary unit responsible for extrajudicial executions and other abuses.

In Peru, 71 workers from an Argentine construction company building a natural-gas pipeline were kidnapped and held for 36 hours. Before security forces could free them, they were released, and the company denies having paid a ransom. President Alejandro Toledo blames remnants of the Shining Path rebel movement for the kidnappings. For background on Shining Path, see today's Feature Article, below. Meanwhile, President Toledo is under pressure from another source as widespread labor unrest continues.

In the US, internal investigations regarding treatment of immigrants detained after September 11 has not softened the rhetoric of Attorney General John Ashcroft, but it has led to reconsideration on the part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). FBI Director Robert Mueller has said that they have taken the criticism seriously and will overhaul its rules for detaining terrorist suspects. The FBI also issued a bulletin to local law enforcement officials to be aware of the use of mobile phones as remote bomb triggers, a tactic that has been used internationally but not yet within the US.

4. Asia Pacific

Burmese democratic opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has seen a UN representative who confirms that she was not injured in last week's clashes and is in good spirits. The Burmese military government has not indicated a date for her release from house arrest.

Cambodia has arrested and charged four men with membership in the militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiyah. Labor protests in the capital Phnom Penh have turned violent and as riot police attempted to disperse the crowd they shot dead two and more than 15 were injured.

China's new Three Gorges dam has been filled, submerging dozens of villages, temples and ancient artifacts. Vertical cracks in the dam have reappeared, leading to concerns over their impact during the approaching flood season.

East Timor has said it will not pursue plans for an international tribunal to prosecute abuses committed by the Indonesian military in 1999.

Indonesia's assault against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) continues, aided by militia groups trained by the Indonesian army. Seven Indonesian soldiers have been killed and an unverified number of some 150 rebels. Three Indonesian soldiers have been sentenced to brief jail terms for beating villagers during the offensive.

North and South Korea have celebrated the symbolic reopening of the cross-border railway link.

Philippine separatists of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have extended their ceasefire a further ten days.

Thailand has acknowledged the presence of international terrorist groups. Three Thais and a Singaporean have been arrested on charges of planning bombings against western interests and links with Jemaah Islamiyah. Thai authorities have seized 30 kilograms of radioactive cesium-0137 that was offered for sale and could be used in a dirty bomb.

5. Europe

EU agriculture ministers met to discuss reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy, including the controversial farm subsidies. Despite support for the moves, and direct pressure from African countries seeking compensation for the damage subsidies have caused them, progress has not yet been made.

Croatia will host an offshore refugee camp for asylum seekers to process applications before they reach the UK.

In Germany, the US plans to cut the 70,000 troops stationed there by as much as 75 percent, re-deploying them to the Caucasus and Africa. The German defense minister has said that the suicide bomber in Afghanistan who killed four German peacekeepers was a member of al Qaeda.

Georgian kidnappers have released the four UN staff abducted last week.

Irish police have found and destroyed a massive bomb with over 500 pounds of explosives found near the border with Northern Ireland.

Italian police have detonated an explosive device found under an airplane seat.

Russian authorities have arrested 55 members of Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir (Liberation Party) and confiscated weapons and explosives. Russia has made its first ever UN food donation, $11 million to North Korea.

Serbian police have clashed with rioting supporters of Veselin Sljivancanin, arrested on war crimes charges and transferred to the UN tribunal in The Hague. At least 30 demonstrators and 15 police were injured.

Spanish police defused a large 50-pound car bomb positioned near a soccer stadium. This discovery comes after demonstrations by supporters of the banned Basque independence party Batasuna.

In Northern Ireland, the body of loyalist Alan McCullough has been found. The Ulster Freedom fighters claimed responsibility.

In Londonderry, Northern Ireland, police have found and destroyed a van packed with 600 pounds of explosives and armed with wires and a timer. Six men are being questioned in connection with the discovery.

6. Middle East

The Middle East Roadmap runs the risk of being the shortest lived peace effort yet following a bloody week of bombings and missile strikes that left 60 people dead in Israel and the occupied territories. In an effort to retrieve the process, Israel and the Palestinians are resuming security talks with a proposal that Israel withdraw from parts of Gaza. Israel, with US acquiescence, will continue to summarily execute suspected terrorists, but has suggested it may stop targeting senior Hamas leaders after the attack against Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi led to international condemnation (even among most Israelis) and an upsurge in violence and calls for revenge.

First thousands then hundreds of Iranians, mostly students, have demonstrated for five consecutive nights against their clerical leaders and clashed with riot police. Hard-line vigilante groups have invaded dormitories and beaten students.

Iran has refused to let UN inspectors visit the Kalaye Electric nuclear plant in Tehran.

Two months after US President Bush announced the end of major combat in Iraq, enlarged US forces have returned to heavy combat targeting the north and west of Baghdad. They are fighting back against repeated attacks by an increasingly organized local resistance. US officials have suggested that one of the attacks targeted "foreign fighters". The 160,000 US and British troops in Iraq are primarily engaged in military activities as well as the search for the missing weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein. This has not left sufficient forces for policing. A gun amnesty program has resulted in only a few hundred weapons turned in; beginning Monday troops will be able to arrest anyone carrying a weapon without a permit.

In Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca, police and Islamic militants clashed, killing five militants and five police. There were seven arrests.

Saudi Arabia and Yemen have agreed to cooperate against weapons smuggling.

7. South Asia

Afghanistan has strengthened security following last Saturday's suicide bombing. Among the initiatives, 700 police will be deployed along the Kabul-Kandahar highway to protect reconstruction work. De-mining has resumed.

Bhutan's adoption of television and the arrival of its first crime wave are described in Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy's article "Fast forward into trouble" in The Guardian, June 14 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4689384,00.html

In Uttar Pradesh state, India, preliminary reports of the excavation of Ayodhya have revealed no trace of a Hindu temple below the remains of a mosque that was destroyed in 1992. Lack of evidence will not calm Hindu militants who believe the site is the location of the birth of the God Ram.

Indian-administered Kashmir saw eight more deaths, in several separate incidents including shootings and kidnappings.

In Nepal, protests over King Gyanendra's assumption of executive powers have continued.

Pakistan saw several attacks during the week. Politician Abdur Raziq Khan was shot dead by gunmen passing on a motorcycle. In another motorcycle attack, 11 police recruits were shot on their way to college. Twenty suspects were apprehended in connection with this attack, believed linked to the banned militant groups Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba. In another attack, gunmen killed four policemen near Baluchistan.

Sri Lanka has received a pledge of $4.5 billion in aid and the government has appealed to the Tamil Tigers to renew peace negotiations. The Tigers have rejected the move. The ceasefire is under even more stress with another naval confrontation. The Sri Lankan navy challenged a boat that allegedly belonged to Tamil Tiger rebels. The boat blew up, possibly because the Tigers intended to destroy evidence of smuggled arms. The Tigers, however, say that the Sri Lankan navy fired on the boat. In any case, this is the third Tamil boat sunk after a naval confrontation.

8. Cyberterrorism and Information Warfare

India is scheduled to open its first center for cyber security next month.

A new virus called AVF was sent by a spammer and is used to open a backdoor in the recipient computer that allows the spammer to send out junk mail.

9. Finance

Green Customs (http://www.unepie.org/ozonaction/customs) is a new multi-agency collaborative project to combat trade in illegal chemicals, hazardous waste and endangered species.

A new spin on advance fee frauds (i.e. Nigeria 419 schemes) has arrived in email appeals that claim to be from a relative of Saddam Hussein who needs help in accessing funds taken from Iraq. In Nigeria, authorities have warned against false offers of crude oil using forged Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation documents.

Northern Ireland hosted a conference on organized crime that focused on cross-border issues. They discussed organized crime in Northern Ireland that earns GBP125 million each year for the paramilitary coffers.
"NI gangs 'extorting millions'" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/2979176.stm
"Ulster terror gangs link up with mafia" http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4691561,00.html

10. Human Rights

The UN has granted a 1-year renewal of the exemption of US peacekeepers from the International Criminal Court

Ricardo Cavallo, former Argentine naval officer arrested in Mexico three years ago, will be extradited to Spain on charges of genocide and terrorism during Argentina's "dirty war" of 1976-1983. The decision to extradite was made by Mexico's Supreme Court, upholding the principle of universal competence. In another universal competence case, a Belgian court has ruled that General Amos Yaron can be tried for his actions during the 1982 massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon. The US is so concerned over universal competence that it has suggested it may withdraw funding of the new NATO headquarters and no longer attend NATO meetings in Brussels. These actions suggest the US has not kept up-to-date on changes to the Belgian law that provide additional protection against arbitrary accusations.

11. Law and Legal Issues

Christian Ganczarski was arrested in France for allegations of links to terrorism. He has been called al Qaeda's top leader in Europe.

William "Mo" Courtney has been charged in Northern Ireland on charges of the murder of loyalist Alan McCullough and membership in the Ulster Freedom Fighters. Ahab Shoukri has been arrested previously in connection with the murder.

George McHenry was arrested in Northern Ireland on suspicion of having an item (a notebook of nationalist addresses) that could be used in connection with a terrorist act.

Mohammad Yasin Malik, leader of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, was arrested with two colleagues in Indian-administered Kashmir for alleged unlawful activities.

Alisher Musayev has been arrested in Russia on suspicion as leader of a Hisb-e Tahrir cell. At least 55 other people have also been detained.

Narong Penanam was arrested in Thailand on charges of trying to sell radioactive materials. The arrest was made as part of a sting operation.

Kristi Lea Persinger has been sentenced to three years in prison for possessing five bombs that her (now former) husband intended to use to attack Islamic institutions.

John William Racine II has pleaded guilty to hacking the al Jazeera web site during the war in Iraq.

Veselin Sljiancanin, accused of participation in the 1991 Vukovar massacre, has been arrested in Serbia and will be extradited to The Hague.

Jovica Stanisic, former head of Serbia's secret police, has pleaded not guilty to war crimes charges at the international tribunal in The Hague.

Asif Zaheer and Rizwan Bashir have been detained in Pakistan on accusations of planning a suicide bombing and of membership in Harkat-e-Jihad-e-Islami and Harkat-ul Mujahideen, respectively.

12. Narco-terrorism

Reports that US military helicopters went on a secret mission in Afghanistan to spray herbicides on opium crops in Afghanistan have been denied. Afghanistan retains its position as the largest producer of opium.

13. Transportation

Australia, Japan and the US are discussing possible changes to international law that would make it easier to stop North Korean vessels on the high seas, and so intercept shipments of missile technology and drugs. At this time, safety violations are being used as a pretext to stop ships from leaving port.

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels are again accused of weapons smuggling after an incident in which a boat sank as the result of an explosion, either due to Sri Lankan navy shots or an explosion to hide the evidence.

The US has announced plans to improve security at major ports in the Middle East and Asia to reduce vulnerabilities to terrorism.

14. Weapons of Mass Destruction

Public health authorities in the US continue to trace the spread of monkeypox infections. The human-to-human transmission has been reported. Smallpox vaccinations are being recommended for those who have been exposed to the virus.

The government of Ireland is bringing legal action against the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in the UK under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea on the basis of claims that the radioactive discharges pollute the Irish Sea.

Thai authorities have seized 30 kilograms of radioactive cesium-137 that was offered for sale and could be used in a dirty bomb.

15. Recently Published

Anne Applebaum, "Gulag: A History". Doubleday

Daniel J. Barrett, Richard Silverman and Robert G. Byrnes, "Linux Security Cookbook" O'Reilly

Alvin Jackson "Home Rule: An Irish History 1800-2000" Weidenfeld and Nicholson

Walter Laqueur "No End to War: Terrorism in the 21st Century" Continuum

George Monbiot "The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order" Flamingo

Dale Peterson, "Eating Apes" University of California Press

Linda Polman "We Did Nothing: Why the Truth Doesn't Always Come Out When the UN Goes In" Viking

Philip Snow "The Fall of Hong Kong: Britain, China and the Japanese Occupation" Yale University Press

FEATURE ARTICLE: The Shining Path

Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo this week blamed remnants of the Shining Path rebel movement for the kidnapping of 71 people in southeastern Peru. Although the hostages were released unharmed after 36 hours, this constitutes their biggest attack in more than ten years.

This week's Feature Article is a reminder of the legacy of the Shining Path (a/k/a Sendero Luminoso [SL], Partido Comunista del Peru en el Sendero Luminoso de Jose Carlos Mariategui [Communist Party of Peru on the Shining Path of Jose Carlos Mariategui], Partido Comunista del Peru [Communist Party of Peru] [PCP], Socorro Popular del Peru [People's Aid of Peru] [SPP], Ejercito Guerrillero Popular [People's Guerrilla Army] [EGP], Ejercito Popular de Liberacion [People's Liberation Army] [EPL]) as well as the social and political environment that preceded its founding.
At its height, Shining Path was the most feared guerilla group in South America. Tina Rosenberg, in her book "Children of Cain: Violence and the Violent in Latin America" (Morrow, 1991; Penguin 1992) describes life at the height of the Shining Path insurgency as follows:

"....Among contemporary guerilla movements, only Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge is comparable in brutality. Sendero Luminoso women flirt with police; when the officer lets down his guard, they slit his throat and take his weapon. A Sendero chief and her fighters stop a truckload of local government officials; after killing them, the Senderistas cut out their eyes and tongues. A ten-year-old boy carrying lit dynamite walks to the door of a Lima bank and explodes.

"In the name of erasing the old order, a company of Senderistas entering a highland village will kill anyone associated with that order: the local mayor; the health post's nurse; the peasant organizer managing farm cooperatives; the bank security guard; the European agronomist combating sheep fever; the peasant who owns too large a plot of potatoes; the student who goes to the airport to pick up a political candidate arriving from Lima. In April 1990 guerillas entered two Andean villages and killed seventy-four peasants, many of them old people and children.

"Customarily the Peruvian Army moves into a village a few days after Sendero leaves. The army's treatment of villagers is almost indistinguishable from that of the guerillas. It rounds up all those it suspects of sympathizing with Sendero: the housewife who cooked a meal out of fear for her life; the local government officials whom Sendero suspiciously allowed to live; leftist peasant organizers; neighborhood leaders; sometimes a town's entire population of young men. They are taken to the army base and usually not seen again."
[Rosenberg pp146-7]

Peru has a long and violent history. The bloody empire of the Incas was defeated by Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century. Peru was the last colony in South America to gain independence from Spain, achieved in 1824. Regional fighting occurred off and on until the end of World War II when, in 1945, the first freely elected civilian government came into power. There was coup in 1948, a return to civilian rule in 1963, and another coup in 1968.

Dr. Abimael Guzman, the founder of Shining Path, was born on December 3, 1934. As a teenager, he joined the Communist Party (PCP), gained a doctorate in Philosophy and began to teach. He visited China and became a profound believer in bringing about a Maoist revolution in Peru. In the 1960s he led the radical "red" faction of the PCP, using the nom de guerre of President Gonzalo.

After his 1968 coup, General Juan Velasco Alvarado introduced land reforms and nationalization. The land reform programs were very popular and Guzman began to believe it would undermine his goal to bring a new social order through armed struggle. In 1980, new elections brought in a civilian government and the traditional left began to prepare for democracy. Shining Path launched the armed struggle.

In a country that had labored under years of political instability, discrimination against the impoverished peasantry, and difficult economic conditions, the almost messianic message of the Maoist movement found receptive ears. At its height, it had 10,000 members and controlled large parts of the country, including many of the coca-growing areas.

Although modeled after the revolution in China, Shining Path has never received aid from the Chinese or any other outside forces. They made what they needed or took what they wanted and supplemented this with a "tax" extorted from coca growers.

The increasing power of the militants led to government crackdown against both the guerillas and against drug trafficking. Violence, as illustrated in Rosenberg's example above, became increasingly vicious and widespread. The numbers of deaths and disappearances rapidly escalated.

Shining Path launched regular attacks in the countryside as well as high-profile targets in the capital, Lima. In July 1992 alone, there were 293 attacks that left 179 people dead. The worst of these was a car bombing that killed 20 and injured at least 250.

Alberto Fujimori, elected president in 1990, operated the government under a range of emergency measures that allowed increasingly arbitrary actions. Peru's economic situation was desperate, with 400 percent inflation. The social and political circumstances were just as bad, with reports of more than 3,000 political murders and widespread human rights abuses.

After a major campaign by Peru's intelligence service, Abimael Guzman was arrested on September 12, 1992. This was a great coup for the government and a huge blow to Shining Path. Over the next two years, some 6,000 militants surrendered under an amnesty program. The lot of the people of Peru was little improved, however, as the level of government corruption and attendant human rights abuses increased.

Fujimori was finally forced to resign in November 2000. He is now in self-imposed exile in Japan, fighting extradition on an international arrest warrant on charges of corruption and human rights abuses. Many of his close colleagues have also been arrested. His former intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos has been charged with drug and arms trafficking as well as human rights violations.

His departure marked the end of two decades of violence in which more than 30,000 people were killed, 4,000 were arbitrarily detained, and over 600,000 were forced to leave their homes.

Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard testimony from April through October 2002. There were thousands of accounts of rape, murder, arbitrary detention and torture, giving a personal sense of the impact of the atrocities committed by both the rebels and the government. Although there have been many other truth and reconciliation efforts, this is the first in which public statements were made by the victims. More than 150 of the victims' accounts were broadcast on national television.

Fujimori was followed by interim President Valentin Paniagua who served until Alejandro Toledo was elected to office in June 2001. Toledo is the first President of native Andean Indian origin. He promises to end corruption and combat poverty.

Toledo has faced a number of serious challenges. The economy is growing, but this has not led to increased prosperity. Compliance with International Monetary Fund (IMF) guidelines has limited public spending. In turn, this has contributed to labor unrest. Last month, public employees went on strike and held, sometimes violent, protests over their pay, leading to the imposition of a state of emergency. This situation seems to be stabilizing, but it will be important that IMF and other international organizations actively participate in the much-needed economic revitalization.

On the political front, in 2002 the Inter-American Court of Human Rights struck down Peru's 1995 amnesty law that had protected government forces from prosecution for human rights abuses during the war. This year, Peruvian judges annulled the verdicts of some 400 terrorism trials that were carried out in military tribunals by anonymous judges, including that of Guzman. Holding new trials will be fraught with difficulty, but it does indicate that constitutional justice is again being taken seriously.

The re-emergence of Shining Path, now numbering less than a thousand and under the leadership of Oscar Ramirez Durand, was no doubt an even more unpleasant surprise. This year has seen death threats against politicians, a bomb blast in March near the US embassy that killed nine people ahead of US President Bush's visit, and now the kidnappings.

Ensuring a stable economy and political system will be challenging, but if the international community can manage to spare some time for Peru, there is no reason that President Toledo can not take advantage of the slowly improving financial situation to continue implementing his social programs. Economic improvement will do much to ensure that Shining Path remains a marginal, rather than a mass, movement.