Fujimori widens emergency rule<\/p>\n
LIMA (Reuter): President Alberto Fujimori widened emergency
\nrule in Peru on Friday and won solid backing from home and abroad
\nfor refusing to make concessions to Marxist guerrillas holding
\n103 VIP hostages at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima.<\/p>\n
A special session of the Peruvian congress called by Fujimori
\nvoted overwhelmingly -- 82 for, eight abstentions -- to give
\n\"full support to the government and (whatever) decisions it takes
\nto solve this grave crisis.\"<\/p>\n
Fujimori called the session after giving more powers to the
\narmy and police under a decree that widened a state of emergency
\nfirst imposed in the early 1980s to counter a wave of left-wing
\nviolence.<\/p>\n
Outside the Japanese ambassador's residence in the fashionable
\ndistrict of San Isidro, police arrested three guerrilla suspects
\nthey said had posed as street vendors to gather information.<\/p>\n
Police sources said the three -- two women and a man -- had
\nbeen found with maps and false identity papers. One police source
\nsaid: \"We think they were looking for information to report back
\nto the national committee\" of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary
\nMovement (MRTA), whose guerrillas stormed the residence on Dec.
\n17.<\/p>\n
A decree published in the official government gazette and
\nsigned by Fujimori said all of Lima and the neighboring port of
\nCallao had been placed under emergency rule for 60 days.<\/p>\n
Until Friday, the state of emergency had covered only the
\ncenter and industrial outskirts of Lima and part of Peru's
\nmountain and jungle regions.<\/p>\n
Under emergency rule, a number of constitutional rights are
\nsuspended and police can make arrests without search warrants.<\/p>\n
A local television channel showed two of the suspects being
\nbundled into cars which then sped off to the headquarters of
\nPeru's anti-terrorism police. The arrests brought to six the
\nnumber of people detained outside the residence for suspicion of
\nbeing guerrillas.<\/p>\n
Fujimori has flatly ruled out giving in to the hostage takers'
\ndemand for the release of 400 comrades serving long sentences in
\nPeruvian jails.<\/p>\n
His refusal to negotiate the release of jailed guerrillas won
\nbacking on Friday from the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized
\nnations and Russia.<\/p>\n
In the toughest of a long stream of statements on the hostage
\ncrisis from around the world, a G7 communique condemned the
\nrebels as \"terrorists\" and promised to help the Peruvian
\ngovernment with \"all the appropriate means that it could
\nrequest.\"<\/p>\n
Stressing the principle of no concessions to armed rebels, the
\ncommunique issued in Paris coincided with reports that a U.S.
\nspyplane had made high-altitude night flights over the residence
\nand crack anti-terrorist units of the Peruvian police were
\ntraining around a model of the building.<\/p>\n
Peruvian intelligence sources told Reuters the American plane,
\na Schweitzer SA-2-37A equipped with infrared cameras, had made
\nseveral runs over the residence in the past few days.<\/p>\n
The aircraft has been used periodically, the sources said, on
\nreconnaissance missions over drug-growing areas in the jungles of
\nPeru, the world's largest producer of coca, the raw material for
\ncocaine.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, Japan, whose nationals account for the
\nlargest number of hostages, after Peru, had called for unity in
\nresolving the crisis.<\/p>\n
\"It is clear that the international community should not
\ncondone terrorism,\" Foreign Minister Yukihiko Ikeda told a news
\nconference. \"It is also necessary ... to act as one to help
\nresolve this crisis by setting free all the hostages peacefully,
\nand at an early date.\"<\/p>\n
The hardening position of the international community followed
\nChristmas appeals from around the world, including Pope John Paul
\nand U.S. President Bill Clinton. But the roughly 20 guerrillas
\nholed up inside the booby-trapped residence showed no signs of
\nchanging their conditions for releasing hostages.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/fujimori-widens-emergency-rule-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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