Separation of children from their families in camps
The Shining Path separated 11-12 year-old children from their families to form combat groups.
In the Shining Path camps, when people arrived from different sides, they would form and separate them into groups of 10. At the age of 11 or 12, the children were separated from their parents and from the 'masses' to join the future combat group. A 14-year-old girl recounts: 'When we are chosen for the combat group, they gather us together with our families to say goodbye. My mother, my little brothers and I cried a lot because we might not see each other again, but I had to leave because it would be worse.