Tackle terrorism at its roots
It was the "Peace for all Peruvians" banner that stung most acutely of all the illogical banners unfurled over the weekend by the heavily-armed, so-called Marxist rebels holding 74 hostages at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima.
How can there be peace for all Peruvians when guns come to bear? The new millennium is three years off, and trying times remain for many countries. It is disconcerting that we have begun a new year in the midst of a multinational terrorist event of potentially apocalyptic proportions.
The long and painful subjugation of Peru's Shining Path guerrilla movement earlier in the decade bade well for the few South American countries that emerged relatively untarnished from the postwar disgrace of harbored Nazi war criminals. Furthermore, Peru's economy has soared while those of some of its neighbors, most notably Venezuela, have languished in the face of domestic unrest.
Peru's economic growth in 1996 was among the highest in the world, with corporate investments climbing all the time. The astonishing ancient Incan sites like Macchu Pichu are once again drawing tourists by the hundreds of thousands. What went wrong?
An estimated 30,000 lives have been lost to terrorist activities in Peru in the 16 years since the Shining Path first appeared. The currently hostage-holding Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, launched in 1983, has now curbed its absurd "war tax" demands by a third, to something like US$30 million, yet the sheer senselessness of its desire that 400 jailed rebels be released pays nothing more than lip service to the sentiments of another scrawled banner draped across the diplomatic manse: "Today's Peru: 13 million in poverty. Where is the progress?"
There can be no sympathy for the terrorists, whatever spurs them to such desperate moves, but Mr. Fujimori is wrong to abandon negotiations, just as he is wrong to ignore the plight of the most desperate of his people. This has been going on since Dec. 16, Mr. Fujimori. That's three weeks too long. And as for the plight of the poor and the atrocity of the terrorists, act now and act decisively. Put an end to both.
-- The Bangkok Post