Former President Alberto K. Fujimori of Peru defiantly defended himself in court on Wednesday against accusations of human rights abuses, saying that he was innocent of murder and kidnapping charges related to his government’s counterinsurgency tactics during a bloody period of guerrilla attacks in the early 1990s.

Mr. Fujimori took the stand in his own defense at his trial in Lima, Peru, now in its 15th month. He was seeking to convince a three-judge panel that he should not be held responsible for a dirty war that prosecutors said led to the deaths of 25 people by two military death squads, as well as the kidnappings of a businessman and a journalist.

In nationally televised testimony, Mr. Fujimori read from a prepared statement, describing the campaign against guerrillas during his presidency from 1990 to 2000 as a “policy of pacification.”