Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1997 17:20:57 +0100 (MET)
Subject: M-G: Peru!


-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Feb. 6, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------

WORKERS AROUND THE WORLD: FEBRUARY 6, 1997

PERU: MRTA: GOVERNMENT PREPARES MASSACRE

Tension continues to build in Lima, Peru's capital, where 
a commando team of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement 
(MRTA) has held a diplomatic compound since Dec. 17. The 
MRTA is holding 72 diplomatic and military prisoners, 
demanding the release of over 400 of its imprisoned members 
and the end of Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori's 
"neoliberal" economic policies.

On Jan. 23, the Marxist group issued its eighth communiqu, 
since the take-over of the residence of Japan's ambassador 
to Peru. The communi qu,, posted on the group's internet 
site, calls on supporters around the world to exert pressure 
to stop the "announc ed massacre" of the MRTA team and its 
prisoners by the Peruvian military.

The communiqu, also warned that at least three MRTA 
prisoners held in the Naval Base prison are being tortured 
and pressured to sign a "peace accord"--"what is in reality 
an unconditional surrender," according to the MRTA.

The Fujimori regime has stepped up provocations against 
the MRTA-held compound. Police agents have thrown objects 
into the compound. Special-forces teams including 
helicopters and armored personnel carriers have carried out 
military maneuvers around the compound.

On Jan. 23, Fujimori warned that the MRTA action "is not 
going to go unpunished." Speaking in Bolivia, he said the 
regime is "looking for the total eradication of the MRTA in 
the region."

He also backed away from the open negotiations he had 
previously hinted at. "We are not going to allow [government 
negotiator Domingo] Palermo to go to the negotiating table 
unless they accept that there will be no release of 
prisoners," Fujimori said on Jan. 23.

That statement came three days after Japanese Prime 
Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto gave the nod to Fujimori's hard-
line stance. "Japan will never give in to terrorism," he 
announced on Jan. 20. Several high-ranking Japanese business 
leaders are among the MRTA's captives. Japan had previously 
made public professions in favor of a negotiated solution to 
the crisis.
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