Jailed leftist rebels in Peru end hunger strike

LIMA, Peru, March 14 (Reuters) - Jailed leaders of rebel groups that battled Peru's government in a bloody conflict in the 1980s and 1990s ended a 31-day hunger strike after winning no concessions on their demands for new trials and better jail terms, officials said on Thursday. 

"I have a document signed by the inmates ... saying they have decided the end the hunger strike they began on February 11," Interior Minister Fernando Rospigliosi told RPP radio. 

The protest was started by Abimael Guzman, the legendary leader of the Maoist group, Shining Path, other Shining Path leaders and the heads of the smaller Marxist Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement in the top-security naval base where Peru's most infamous prisoners are held. 

The protest -- seeking to win benefits, like a new visiting scheme and an end to isolation -- spread to some 400 rebel inmates in other jails across Peru. 

A Shining Path inmate in Lima's Castro Castro jail calling himself "Comrade Miguel" told RPP prisoners had also called off their strike on Wednesday "in a show of good will and so that the government will help us." 

The prisoners, most convicted under former President Alberto Fujimori's crackdown on rebel violence during his 1990-2000 term, demanded retrials when they began the strike. 

Rospigliosi said the government did not negotiate with the rebels and that Luis Bambaren, head of the Roman Catholic bishops' conference in Peru, had helped end the strike. 

Justice officials said the weakened prisoners would receive medical care. "(MRTA leader Victor) Polay is in poor health. He lost 26 pounds (12 kg)," Peru's state human rights monitor, Walter Alban, told Panamericana television. 

Years after nearly two decades of state-rebel violence tailed off in the poor Andean nation, Peru still bears the scars of civilian massacres, kidnappings, and car bombs. 

Shining Path was one of Latin America's most brutal rebel groups but its strength petered out after Guzman was captured in 1992. The MRTA is best known for a 1996-97 hostage siege at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima. 

The government of President Alejandro Toledo cautions that Shining Path remains a potential menace and works with drug traffickers in Peru, which is the world's second-biggest producer of coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine. 

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