Cipriani: The Museum of Memory Will Not Help Reconciliation

Cardinal Cipriani — who served as bishop of Ayacucho during the genocide — gives his reasons for not creating a Museum of Memory. The Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, stated that tempers should be calmed in response to Germany's donation proposal to create a Museum of Memory. He argued that the identity of Peruvians is too sacred for one particular period, group, or another country to claim to establish their history. "Peru is very great and its people are wonderful; we have flaws but we cannot reduce it to the service of an ideology," he stated. He considered that things had gone a bit too far in trying to ensure that one version of the events related to the years of the counter-terrorism struggle be given a museum. Published on March 7, 2009.