Peru Has Offered Deal to Free Hostages, Report Says

Peru’s government has offered to let most of the rebels occupying the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Lima, the capital, stay in the country if they release all of their hostages, a Japanese daily reported Sunday.

The Mainichi Shimbun quoted sources close to Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori and to the government’s negotiating commission as saying the proposal was submitted during the last round of talks Wednesday.

The government proposed letting most of the Marxist guerrillas remain in Peru without prosecution, provided that rebel leader Nestor Cerpa Cartolini and up to three other members of the group charged with previous offenses go into exile in Cuba.

The government also offered to make prison reforms, along with reforms in the judicial process and guarantees of changes in the way criminal investigations are undertaken, the daily reported.

Members of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement were to have replied to the government proposal in the 10th round of talks Friday, it said, but the rebels abruptly called off the meeting.

The rebels, who are holding 72 men hostage, said they had detected sounds of tunnels being dug, indicating that security forces planned to storm the residence.

Meanwhile Sunday, two mediators in the 82-day hostage crisis met with guerrillas in the ambassador’s residence to try to restart the stalled negotiations to end the standoff.

Archbishop Juan Luis Cipriani and Canadian envoy Anthony Vincent, both members of a three-man guarantors commission, were hopeful but noncommittal after the two-hour meeting.

Speaking by two-way radio later, Cerpa told Radio Programas that negotiations could resume as early as today. No other details were available.