Movimiento Revolucionario
Tupac Amaru (MRTA)
Communique #3

1. The leaders of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) in the residence of the Ambassador of Japan declare:

A. We lament that some political and journalistic personalities insist on labelling us as a terrorist and genocidal band, which is absolutely false, since there are no facts that sustain it.

B. We don't accept that we continue being compared with Shining Path, an organization that we have repeatedly condemned for the use of an irrational violence that affects the people itself.

C. Throughout our activity, we have governed ourselves within a strict framework of respect for the civil population. Certainly, we assume [responsibility for] some precise deeds, explained promptly, against some personalities. Just as, in open battles against the forces of order, we have caused casualties, we have had them in our ranks as well.

D. Therefore, and for the seriousness that we owe our people, we ask that it be clarified, in the best possible manner, who made use of indiscriminate terror against innocent civilians, even massive massacres of the civil population, in such a manner that concrete responsibilities are pointed out and generalities are not [just] repeated.

2. We reiterate our disposition to resolve, by the path of dialogue, our withdrawl from the occupied residence. To this end it is important to resolve why this extreme situation developed and look at the situation of the prisons and the drama that the relatives of the imprisoned companeros have lived for years. We think that in this way it will be understood that our demand ought to be heeded and will allow, in the long run, the attainment of an integral and lasting peace. In this endeavor we will take part responsibly.

3. As a show of will to continue seeking the path of dialogue, we have announced the liberation of 20 persons.

Yours faithfully,

For the National Direction of the MRTA,
Nestor Cerpa Cartolini

Lima - December 28, 1996