Peru, Rebels In Stalemate Tupac Amaru Rebels Seek Release Of Comrades, Threaten To Kill Hostages At Japanese Embassy

An audacious raid by Marxist guerrillas against the Japanese ambassador’s residence here settled into a tense and agonizing stalemate Wednesday night, as terrorists holding up to 490 hostages - businessmen, government officials and at least 11 foreign ambassadors - threatened to begin killing them unless their demands are met.

The drama began Tuesday night, when about two dozen members of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, known by the Spanish initials MRTA, stormed a lavish party that the Japanese ambassador hosts each year to celebrate the Japanese emperor’s birthday. Reports on how they entered the complex differed. Most of the attacking guerrillas apparently rushed over the high concrete walls surrounding the ambassadorial compound, according to the confused accounts of witnesses. Unconfirmed reports say that others slipped onto the grounds disguised as waiters. The newspaper La Republica, in a special edition, said that members of MRTA rented an adjacent house three months ago and then tunneled their way into the grounds of the residence.

A glittering array of Lima’s rich, famous and powerful were in attendance, and the prominence of the hostages - along with the fact that the siege was taking place on what was technically Japanese territory - turned what would otherwise have been a serious drama for Peru into an international crisis.

Despite a pitched gunbattle during the takeover and the guerrillas’ threats, by nightfall the siege had resulted in no deaths and only minor injuries.

U.S. Ambassador Dennis Jett was at the party but left around 7:45 p.m., about half an hour before the attack. The State Department refused to comment on unconfirmed reports that several other Americans were being held inside the compound.

The guerrillas, a relatively small group calling for Cuban-style revolution, demanded the release of MRTA members held in Peruvian jails and safe passage to a haven in the Amazon region, where they said the last hostage would be released. One of the guerrillas, apparently the leader, threatened to start killing hostages if the demands were not fulfilled. But his stated deadline came and went with no bloodshed.

About 6 p.m. Wednesday, after medicine had been delivered to the embassy, the rebels released four diplomats - the ambassadors of Canada, Germany and Greece, and the French cultural attache. The men, dressed in business suits and looking fit after 22 hours as hostages, read a statement in which they said they had been sent to “search for a negotiated solution” that would avoid “bloodshed.”

Asserting that “terrorists cannot be rewarded,” the State Department expressed strong opposition to any move by Peru to make concessions to the guerrillas. “The United States does not make concessions to terrorists, and we encourage others to follow that practice as well,” spokesman Nicholas Burns said in Washington.

President Clinton refrained from publicly commenting on the situation in an effort to avoid raising the value of the captives. He sent letters to Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto to express the United States’ anxiety and “to advise them of our willingness to be of help,” White House spokesman Michael McCurry said.

Among the hostages was Peru’s foreign minister, Francisco Tudela, and so many of his staff that the ministry was left without senior officials. Aside from the diplomatic corps, the captives included Peruvian congressmen, the president of the supreme court and Fujimori’s brother.

Fujimori’s mother and sister were released several hours after the takeover, along with the other women hostages and some elderly men.

A letter faxed from within the residence at 12:39 p.m., signed by 25 hostages, warned that the situation was growing tenser because of the “lack of dialogue,” an apparent reference to calls from MRTA for Fujimori to personally conduct the talks. Among the signers of the document - which gave the number of hostages as 490, far more than the 200 to 300 originally estimated - were the ambassadors of Egypt, Brazil, South Korea, Venezuela, Guatemala, Panama, Honduras and Bolivia. The ambassadors of Japan, Poland, Austria and Cuba also reportedly were being held.

The roster of VIPs, as well as the obvious interest of the countries involved, raised the stakes and put the Peruvian government in the extremely delicate situation of safeguarding the hostages while trying to maintain its oft-stated position not to negotiate with terrorists.

Peru’s image also is at stake. Fujimori’s administration had largely quelled the violent rebellion that terrorized Peru for a decade, involving both MRTA and the much larger Shining Path guerrilla group.

The country’s relative stability and Fujimori’s free-market reforms drew intense interests from foreign investors, including a very large presence by the Japanese. How the government resolves the crisis is expected to have broad implications for the future of these trends.

With so much in the balance, Peruvian officials were largely silent Wednesday. Fujimori spent the day presiding over a closed-door meeting of his council of ministers, with the point men in the crisis being the Interior Minister, Juan Briones, and the chief of police, Kentin Vidal, a legendary figure because he led the operation that captured Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman.

The only information on the situation came from the MRTA, which released a statement at midday.