[Paris, AFP in Spanish, 1948 GMT, 15 Dec 91]

Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has announced that his government will not follow a policy of repression against the coca farmers who "do it out of need." He also refuted criticism from the defenders of human rights who are in "their comfortable and carpeted offices."

In a speech delivered on 14 December in Quimbiri, Ayacucho, on the Andean southeast, Fujimori recalled that "we had to refuse a $34 million donation from the United States because that money was destined to harshly suppress the coca growers."

The area is located in the valley of the Apurimac River, a bastion of the Shining Path where coca--raw material for cocaine--are grown.

"We are not going to continue with that policy because we have managed to make all those who thought we were in collusion with narcotics trafficking understand that the growing of coca is a result of the state of abandonment in which hundreds of coca farmers have found themselves," Fujimori said to farmers and members of the self-defense organizations.

Fujimori added that the legislative decrees issued by the government concerning the national pacification system deal with the problems encountered by the peasant defense patrols, who fight terrorism with bows and arrows, sticks and stones. He said that early in 1992 weapons (automatic rifles) will be given to the peasant defense patrols.

He also referred to parliament and the human rights organizations, which have criticized government policy without being aware of the true situation of some towns, such as the one he was visiting.

"These human rights defenders, who keep silent when the Shining Path murders, should come to these towns before talking," he said. He added that the government will try to involve coca farmers in legal activities.