Negotiations Go Well In Peru Hostage Crisis Officials Growing Optimistic Bloodshed Can Be Avoided

Optimism is growing that the hostage crisis at the Japanese ambassador’s residence can be resolved without bloodshed after the government and Marxist rebels met face to face on Saturday for the first time. Both sides appeared to soften their positions.

Foreign diplomats and international aid officials said Sunday that while they do not anticipate a quick resolution to the crisis, the latest statements by the Tupac Amaru rebels and the government’s chief negotiator show that both sides have tempered the hard-nosed language that characterized their initial positions.

Neither the guerrillas, who demanded the release of their imprisoned comrades, nor the government, which has offered only that it will give the rebels holding the hostages safe passage if they lay down their arms, has officially dropped any of their demands.

But both sides seem less insistent and more flexible.

Michel Minnig, the Red Cross representative who has served as the main intermediary between the government and the rebels, said Sunday in a rare commentary on the negotiations that he was “cautiously optimistic” about the outcome.

“We don’t like to predict the outcome of these situations, especially since there are still 100 people inside,” Minnig said in an interview, referring to the 83 hostages and their estimated 15 guerrilla captors.

Many diplomats have been particularly encouraged that the Tupac Amaru guerrillas have stopped setting deadlines for beginning the execution of their captives.

In their most recent communique, the rebels demanded only that the government provide better prison conditions for their jailed comrades rather than that it free them, which President Alberto Fujimori is said to oppose strongly.