Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 23:31:22 -0800
Subject: M-G: In Japan, Lima Crisis Stirs Anxiety, Incomprehension



Happy Birthday Emperor Akihito!  Merry Xmas!

Jay Miles / Detroit
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In Japan, Lima Crisis Stirs Anxiety, Incomprehension   

By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, December 19 1996; Page A35
The Washington Post
         
TOKYO, Dec. 19 (Thursday) -- Japan waited nervously today for
resolution of the hostage crisis at the Japanese ambassador's
residence in Lima -- an armed stand-off with leftist guerrillas who
have taken hundreds of hostages, including the Japanese and South
Korean ambassadors and employees of at least 17 Japanese firms that
conduct business in Peru.
   
The incident is especially shocking to the Japanese, who enjoy one of
the lowest crime rates in the world and to whom domestic terrorism by
men toting machine guns seems unfathomable. At least one freed
Japanese hostage declared, however, that the guerrilla assault brought
back terrible memories of last year's nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo
subway system by religious cultists -- an act of terrorism that killed
at least a dozen people and shook Japan's nearly universal sense of
personal security.
   
All Japanese newspapers carried banner headlines on the Lima attack
this morning. Television networks expanded their news programs
Wednesday night and today to include extensive coverage of the crisis,
in which as many as 600 people were initially taken hostage when
leftist guerrillas stormed a reception marking Emperor Akihito's 63rd
birthday, a major holiday in Japan.
   
Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto spent three hours last night at the
Foreign Ministry headquarters of a special task force that is
monitoring the situation in Lima. He also spoke by telephone with
Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori -- whose parents emigrated from
Japan in 1930 -- and urged him to make the safety of the hostages his
top priority. Foreign Minister Yukihiko Ikeda said that 60 of the
hostages were Japanese citizens, including 17 embassy staff members.
This afternoon, Ikeda left Tokyo on a flight to Lima.
   
The Japanese broadcast network NHK repeatedly aired two telephone
interviews it conducted this afternoon with captive Ambassador
Morihisa Aoki, who spoke with an armed guerrilla at his side. In the
interviews, conducted in Spanish at his captors' demand, Aoki said
that he and about 50 other diplomats and embassy staff members were
being guarded by five or six gunmen in a room on the second floor of
the ambassador's residence.
   
NHK also broadcast a telephone interview with one of the hostage
takers, who said that the Japanese diplomatic mission was chosen as a
target because of Fujimori's Japanese heritage and the extensive
development aid that Japan provides to Peru.
 
"The Japanese government is supporting Fujimori, and Fujimori's
administration is ignoring the plight of 13 million hungry Peruvians,"
the guerrilla said. "Japan's aid is for specific groups in Peru and
not for poor Peruvians."
  
Peru is a key trading partner of Japan, and more than 80,000 Peruvians
are of Japanese ancestry. About 3,500 Japanese citizens live in Peru,
working for scores of Japanese companies in mining, construction,
electronics, engineering and other fields.
   
Japan has provided more than $756 million in development grants and
loans to Peru in the last five years. When Hashimoto visited Peru last
August, he announced an additional $600 million loan package to
finance a new dam, road construction and new water and sewer lines. In
1995, Japan exported about $300 million worth of cars and electronic
goods to Peru and imported $541 million worth of materials, mainly
minerals, from Peru.
   
At least six members of a Japanese company using Japanese aid funds to
design new water and sewer lines, NGS Consultants, are among the
hostages. Kenji Ono, a spokesman for another Japanese company with six
captive employees, Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co., said his firm's
research showed that the security situation in Peru had largely
stabilized in recent years, even though there were several terrorist
attacks on Japanese interests.
   
"We were too relaxed," Ono said.
 
(Source: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com)
 

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