More Hostages Freed; Progress In Talks

Leftist rebels holed up in the Japanese ambassador’s residence here freed 20 more of their VIP hostages Saturday as the guerrillas and government appeared to move closer to a negotiated end to the 11-day siege.

“We have made progress in resolving this grave incident,” Education Minister Domingo Palermo, the government negotiator, declared after the hostages trooped from the white-columned residence.

The release followed Palermo’s first face-to-face meeting with Nestor Cerpa Cartolini, the rebel directing the siege. In a further sign of a possible advance, a rebel communique read by one of the freed hostages did not include some of the guerrillas’ previous demands.

The released hostages included the ambassadors from the Dominican Republic and Malaysia; and Japanese and Peruvian businessmen.

But the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement still holds 83 hostages - including foreign diplomats, Peruvian Cabinet ministers and military generals - in a compound that apparently has been mined.

Until now, the rebels had insisted on wide-ranging peace talks and the release of hundreds of their jailed comrades. President Alberto Fujimori has rejected those demands.

But in the communique, signed by Cerpa, that was read late Saturday, the guerrillas instead complained about stark conditions for jailed rebels and decried the fact that politicians and journalists keep comparing them to the country’s more violent rebel movement, the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path).

“We reiterate our willingness to work out our withdrawal from the occupied residence through a dialogue,” said the rebel statement.

Palermo, the government negotiator, spent more than three hours inside the diplomatic compound Saturday in his first direct talks with the rebels.

In a brief statement, he said his talks with Cerpa were witnessed by the Rev. Juan Luis Cipriani, a Roman Catholic bishop and Fujimori ally who has been permitted to visit the hostages in recent days.