Peru Terrorists Free 225 Captives; Scores Still Held

Left-wing terrorists freed 225 exhausted hostages from the Japanese ambassador’s residence late Sunday as a “Christmas gesture” but declared they’d continue to hold scores of Peruvian and foreign VIPs unless the government made major concessions.

It was the biggest release of captives since the standoff, now in its sixth day, began. But with the rebels still holding about 140 Peruvian congressmen, Supreme Court judges, Japanese businessmen and foreign diplomats, the crisis didn’t appear close to a solution.

The freed hostages emerged smiling and waving from the ambassador’s compound, where they’d slept on floors and gone without baths and working toilets since being taken hostage Tuesday. Scores of expectant family members outside shouted and blew kisses as their loved ones boarded government buses to be transported to facilities where they would be given medical examinations.

“It was extremely tough. I’m very happy now,” said freed Peruvian doctor Miguel Sanchez.

The rebels had telegraphed the release a day earlier, announcing they would gradually free all the hostages not linked to the government.

Shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday, they began to make good on that promise. Led by a Red Cross official, groups of hostages walked from the darkened embassy compound into the bright lights of scores of TV cameras outside.

Among those freed were foreign diplomats and Peruvian businessmen, doctors and academics. Associated Press reported that seven American officials had been among those released, but a U.S. Embassy employee would not confirm that.

A rebel communique sent out with the hostages declared that the guerrillas were not backing down, however.

In the statement, read through a megaphone by a hostage, the rebels assailed President Alberto Fujimori for using “confrontational language” and said his free-market economic policies had increased poverty in Peru.

It pledged that the guerrillas would continue to hold Peruvian government ministers, Supreme Court justices, congressmen and senior police officials until the government agreed to wide-ranging peace talks and the release of their “comrades” in Peruvian jails.

In addition, the armed group said it would retain some Japanese businessmen and would “evaluate” the release of Asian and Latin American diplomats.

It didn’t give any reason why the latter groups would remain hostage. A senior Red Cross official, Michel Minnig, estimated that 140 people were still being held captive.

Fujimori, in his first public comments since the crisis erupted, declared late Saturday that he would not meet the rebels’ demands. But if the guerrillas of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement freed all their captives, he said, a solution could be discussed.

The fatigue-clad, heavily armed guerrillas grabbed control Tuesday of the Japanese ambassador’s residence during a glittering cocktail party. The seizure shocked this country and dozens of governments whose citizens were suddenly prisoners.

For the first time, the government’s official negotiator, Education Minister Domingo Palermo, went to the Japanese ambassador’s home Sunday evening to oversee the hostages’ release. Contacts between the rebels and Fujimori’s government--which prides itself on taking a hard-line against terrorists--have proceeded at a snail’s pace since the crisis began.

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Earlier Sunday, more than 1,000 politicians, former hostages and ordinary Peruvians marched through Lima in support of the captives in the Japanese diplomatic compound, expressing hope that Fujimori’s comments on the crisis would kick-start the sluggish negotiations.

The marchers’ pained faces and voices revived memories of the country’s civil war, which left 30,000 people dead and brought the nation dangerously close to anarchy before subsiding three years ago. Until the hostage standoff, Peruvians had thought the strife was behind them.

“I have seen 16-year-olds die in front of me after bombings,” said Piper Pastor, a volunteer firefighter who was among the army of police, commandos and emergency personnel that has been deployed at the scene. “Terrorism is an open wound in Peru. How can you cure it when things like this happen?”

The marchers urged dialogue between members of Tupac Amaru and Fujimori.

Tupac Amaru has hinted that its ultimate objective is a place in the legitimate political arena for the group.

“The president said the right thing,” marcher Renate Nothmann said. “But there should be dialogue. The Tupac Amaru should present their complaints and their desires, and both sides should work out a peaceful solution.”

When the marchers reached the phalanx of riot police guarding the streets around the ambassador’s residence, emotions and local political tensions flared. Several suburban mayors leading the march tried to force their way closer to the mansion and were rebuffed; other marchers accused the politicians of grandstanding.

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Fujimori’s silence during the standoff had disturbed many foreign diplomats, who complained that the government was keeping them in the dark about the crisis.

Captors and captives in the ambassador’s residence were literally in the dark early Sunday because of a blackout in the area that some blame on a police campaign of psychological pressure.

To allay the hostages’ fears of a possible police assault, Red Cross negotiator Minnig spent Saturday night in the darkened mansion.

The Peruvian government denied requests by the Red Cross to bring the hostages flashlights, according to Red Cross officials.

Hostages released earlier told new and gripping stories about the experience of a distinguished assortment of captives--from diplomats to police generals to pollsters--enduring unaccustomed hardship and squalor. The residence is overcrowded, dirty and lacks water and electricity.

Captivity has provoked a range of reactions, former hostages said. Examples of courage and selflessness have abounded, they said.

Morihisa Aoki, the white-haired Japanese ambassador, responded with conscientious Japanese hospitality from the start, according to former hostages.

On the night of the takeover, as hostages hugged the floor and captors exchanged machine-gun volleys with police outside, Aoki stood erect and implored the police over a bullhorn to cease fire. The ambassador also distributed his shirts among the captives, gave up his bed and, at one point, apologized to all of them for the ordeal.

Cuban and U.N. diplomats initially refused offers to leave because colleagues remained inside. And the hostages threw their collective energy into keeping occupied and upbeat.

“One of our main objectives when we were held hostage was to maintain our morale, to avoid breaking down,” editor Manuel Romero Caro wrote in a first-person account published Sunday in his newspaper, Gestion.

The captives debated politics with the guerrillas, organized joke-telling sessions and performed relaxation exercises led by a Japanese hostage.

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In a less dignified incident, a South American ambassador reportedly raided the mansion’s liquor cabinet and got into a drunken confrontation with the captors.

He announced that he was going to leave and that they were not going to stop him, according to former hostages. A gunman reportedly discouraged him with a resounding slap--the only episode of violence against a hostage reported so far.

Although the guerrillas have not repeated their initial threats to kill hostages, they have told the captives that they are prepared to die and that the dignitaries are likely to die along with them if there is a shootout with Peruvian forces.

On Sunday, Tupac Amaru warned that it could carry out violent acts elsewhere in the nation if Fujimori orders a police attack on the diplomatic compound.