By Walker Simon LIMA, March 17 (Reuters) - Peru is asking the region's top tribunal to flesh out a court order to apologize for a prison massacre to make clear the Maoist rebel "victims" were also "victimizers," the nation's top human rights officer said. Luis Alberto Salgado, head of the Justice Ministry's National Human Rights Council, told Reuters on Friday Peru's "request for interpretation" to the Inter-American Human Rights Court also sought to set up a trust fund for families of the 41 victims as well as survivors of the massacre, thus avoiding the widely criticized order to pay them in cash. The court's December ruling over the 1992 deaths of Shining Path rebels in Lima sparked outrage. President Alan Garcia said there was no way Peruvians would apologize, blaming the Shining Path for "the worst butchery in the nation's history." Some hard-line members of the ruling APRA party said Peru should pull out from the San Jose, Costa Rica-based court, under the aegis of the Organization of American States (OAS). The government says Shining Path was responsible for over half the 69,000 deaths in its 1980-2000 conflict with rebels. "What we are seeking is that the court not only recognize the victims as victims but also as victimizers," Salgado said, "What Shining Path means for many Peruvians is a traumatic remembrance of the bloodshed and their extreme cruelty." A senior official Saturday said the goverment had sent Salgado's brief Friday to the court as a dipolomatic note. Salgado said Peru wants to put the estimated $10 million in court damages into a trust fund to help the injured parties and not pay them in cash. Garcia has said he would use legal means to avoid paying the injured "out of the pockets" of Peruvians. Jose Vivanco of the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch in March attacked Garcia for questioning the ruling, saying the behavior could have been expected by ex-President Alberto Fujimori. Fujimori seized dictatorial powers in early April 1992. One month later, security forces raided the Castro Castro jail, ostensibly to move women rebel convicts from a cellblock the government said had become their indoctrination center.
