Peruvian Hostages Lose Jobs President Fujimori Demotes 6 Generals Being Held By Rebels

Six Peruvian generals held captive in the Japanese ambassador’s residence, including the nation’s two top security heads, lost their high-profile jobs Thursday.

A former security official called the demotions by President Alberto Fujimori part of a regular shuffling of officials at the start of the new year.

But Peruvian media and analysts widely speculated Thursday that the permanent reassignments of Gen. Maximo Rivera Diaz, Peru’s anti-terrorism chief, and Gen. Guillermo Bobbio, chief of state security, were a reflection of the president’s unhappiness with their failure to prevent the nation’s high-profile hostage crisis, now in its third week.

Peru’s Supreme Court President Moises Pantoja, another hostage, also lost his job in the shakeup.

Seventy-four dignitaries - including eight generals, five Supreme Court judges, five congressmen, two foreign ambassadors and the president’s brother Pedro - remain captives at the Japanese compound, seized Dec. 17 by an estimated 15 to 20 rebels of the Marxist Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.

The presidential decree ordering the changes gave no reason for the action, but Hector Caro, a former anti-terror chief, told a Peruvian radio station that it was merely an annual reshuffling of staff.

At the quiet ambassador’s residence Thursday there was little sign of progress in negotiations to end the standoff and the only hostage released was Emma, Japanese Ambassador Morihisha Aoki’s emaciated German Shepherd.

A second dog owned by the ambassador died when it stepped on a land mine in the residence’s back yard, officials at the hostage compound said.

Tupac Amaru guerrillas have said in recent days they will settle for nothing less than the release of their estimated 460 comrades serving time in Peruvian prisons for terrorism.