The government denied accusations Sunday by leftist politicians and a human rights group that the army indiscriminately killed 100 people, including children, raped women and burned a village in central Peru.
The government, in a statement, denied allegations by the Association for the Defense of Human Rights and a coalition of lawmakers called The United Left, which last week reported the massacre.The groups charged that soldiers, infuriated by a bloody guerrilla attack, killed some 100 people in the village of Cayara, about 140 miles southeast of Lima.
The organizations said the attack May 14 was carried out by soldiers from seven military bases, who had been ambushed by the Shining Path guerrilla group.
But the government issued a statement saying, "Despite statements from the citizens of Cayara, the allegations of 100 deaths and the rapes, fires, bombings and murders of children have proven false."