Ambassadors held hostage

Teofilo Caso

Wednesday, Dec. 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

LIMA, Peru -- Armed guerrillas who sneaked into a glittering reception by carrying bottles of champagne and posing as waiters held hundreds of people -- including ambassadors and top officials -- hostage today. One rebel threatened to start killing them unless the government freed their jailed comrades.

Rebels from the Tupac Amaru movement attacked the Japanese ambassador's house as the party began around 8 p.m. Tuesday, setting off explosions and exchanging gunfire with police for almost an hour. Two hostages and a rebel were reported wounded.

A Red Cross representative was allowed to enter the compound this morning and was mediating between the rebels and authorities.

In the early hours of the standoff, the rebels released about 170 hostages, most of them women, including the mother and sister of Peru's president. Red Cross representative Michel Minnig said 300 people were still held in the compound, which covers an entire block and sits behind a 15-foot-high concrete wall topped by a 10-foot electrical fence.

Among the hostages were the ambassadors of Japan, Canada, Brazil, Bolivia, Cuba, South Korea, Germany, Austria and Venezuela. Peru's foreign and agriculture ministers, six legislators, the president of the Supreme Court and dozens of Japanese business people also were inside.

U.S. Ambassador Dennis Jett left the reception early.

An American woman who was released said her husband and six other Americans were inside. She asked not to be identified. The U.S. Embassy reported four of the Americans worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

In Washington, the State Department condemned the hostage-taking and called for the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators. White House spokesman Mike McCurry said, "We're remaining in very close contact with the authorities in Peru." He reiterated U.S. policy rules out negotiating with terrorists.

A stick of dynamite exploded on a patio at the residence this morning, witnesses at the scene said. There were no reports of any injuries and no other details were available.

Twenty-three rebels entered the compound at the start of the reception honoring Japanese Emperor Akihito's birthday. Police said they slipped through security by posing as waiters, driving in with champagne and hors d'oeuvres.

"I heard a loud explosion, then gunfire," said Mieko Torii, who was among those released. "We were told to get down and not move. There was a lot of yelling."

BBC correspondent Sally Bowen said in a report after her release that she had been eating and drinking in an elegant marquee on the lawn when the explosions occurred.

"Moments later, heavy gunfire had us all flat out on the ground," she said. "The guerrillas stalked around the residence grounds threatening us: 'Don't lift your heads up or you will be shot."'

Japan's foreign minister insisted lax security was not to blame and said he would fly to Lima to help resolve the stand-off. Safety measures included blockades in front of Ambassador Morihisa Aoki's compound and security guards, Yukihiko Ikeda said in Tokyo.

"We are thinking first and foremost of the hostages' safety," he said.

In the initial attack, police captured five suspected guerrillas before being forced out of the compound in Lima's upscale San Isidro district.

In the shootout, witnesses said one rebel was wounded in the leg. The Japanese ambassador said two hostages were also wounded.

Bowen said police fired tear gas into the compound, but the rebels wore gas masks so only the hostages were affected.

Early today, the rebels threatened to kill their captives.

"We are clear: the liberation of all our comrades, or we die with all the hostages," a rebel who did not give his name told a local radio station in a telephone call from the compound.

"If the government does not give in, we will begin to execute them," he said.

Another rebel, speaking by telephone to a Lima television station, said the guerrillas acted in "good faith" by releasing women but the government responded by refusing to allow in a doctor.

The rebel said the guerrillas want to be transferred with their freed comrades to the group's "war zone in the jungle."

Many leaders of the Tupac Amaru -- which is smaller than Peru's Maoist Shining Path movement -- are in jail. Its chief, Victor Polay, was captured in 1992.

International Red Cross spokesman Ruben Ortega said the rebels were also demanding the release of comrades held outside Peru, presumably referring to those held in Bolivia and Uruguay.

Bowen said the rebels also claimed to be protesting "the constant interference by the Japanese government in Peru's internal politics." President Alberto Fujimori, who is of Japanese ancestry, has close ties with Japan.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry estimated at least 600 people were at the party, but the Red Cross said only 300 remained.

Aoki, the Japanese ambassador, said in telephone calls to Japanese broadcaster NHK that the rebels wanted to talk directly to Fujimori. He said he was being held in a room by five or six of the guerrillas.

The Red Cross said that its Peruvian representative was mediating between the rebels and Peruvian authorities, and that messages were being relayed through the organization's Geneva headquarters between those two parties and the Japanese.

The Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, which draws its ideology from Cuban revolutionaries, took up arms in 1984. At its height it had fewer than 1,000 fighters; only a few hundred armed followers are believed to remain.

Many alleged members are behind bars, including New Yorker Lori Berenson, who was arrested a year ago and sentenced to life in prison. She denies any involvement with the group.

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