Fujimori Is Wined and Dined by Tokyo's
Powerful By CALVIN SIMS
Fujimori's Fall: A Nation's Lion to Broken Man (Dec. 3, 2000)
Peru's Former President, in New Life in Japan, Defends His Past (Nov. 28,
2000)
OKYO, June 27 — Not long ago, Dr. Torao Tokuda, a wealthy member of
Parliament, invited about 15 of his colleagues to an exclusive Tokyo
restaurant with geishas, promising that they would meet a "very intriguing"
person.
When the legislators arrived, they encountered the outspoken, nationalist
governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, who they assumed was the man they had
come to meet.
But he was not, and as the drinking got under way, in walked the real guest
of honor, a new resident of Japan who has become the darling of the wealthy,
nationalistic political set of a country desperately in search of heroes
these days: the former president of Peru, Alberto K. Fujimori.
Mr. Fujimori, who fled to Japan in November after revelations of rampant
corruption and abuse of power in his government, may be widely despised in
Peru, where the Congress has declared him "morally unfit" to govern, but he
is as popular as ever here.
And while his former spy chief was picked up in Venezuela this week and sent
home for trial, Mr. Fujimori has been living here in comfort — his expenses
reportedly paid by Dr. Tokuda — and he remains well protected by a secure
web of political connections.
Several Japanese lawmakers who attended the gathering, which took place in
February at the Fukudaya restaurant, said Dr. Tokuda had toasted Mr.
Fujimori, saying the occasion was intended to form a support group for the
deposed leader.
The legislators, who asked that they not be identified, said Governor
Ishihara, too, gave a speech praising Mr. Fujimori as a "splendid
individual" who he said was the victim of a diabolical scheme by the United
States to unseat him.
"Japan has a responsibility to protect Mr. Fujimori, a son of Japanese
immigrants, who was the first person of Japanese descent to lead a foreign
country," the politicians recalled Mr. Ishihara saying.
The arrest and extradition this week of the man who at one time was Mr.
Fujimori's most trusted aide, Vladimiro Montesinos, has placed new pressure
on Japan to hand over Mr. Fujimori for trial, with Peru calling its
ambassador home on Wednesday for consultations.
Mr. Montesinos, who used to collaborate closely with the Central
Intelligence Agency, is facing myriad charges, including trafficking in arms
and drugs, laundering money, directing death squad activities and rigging
Mr. Fujimori's re-election last year. If convicted, Mr. Montesinos could
spend the rest of his life in prison. Prosecutors have said they expect him
to implicate Mr. Fujimori in an effort to gain a lighter sentence, and
Peruvian officials are hoping that Mr. Montesinos will disclose the full
extent of the Fujimori government's corruption.
But the Japanese government repeated this week that it would deny any
request to send the former president back to Peru.
Japan, which does not usually extradite its citizens, says it considers Mr.
Fujimori a Japanese citizen because his name was entered in a family
register in Japan after his birth, which Mr. Fujimori has always asserted
was in Peru soon after his parents moved there. Birth in Japan would have
made him ineligible to be Peru's president.
Moreover, Japan has no extradition treaty with Peru.
So now, not only is Mr. Fujimori secure in his new life in Japan, but he has
also become something of a hero for what is proudly regarded as his decisive
leadership of Peru. Over the course of his decade in power, Mr. Fujimori,
who was often ready to back up his will with force, rejuvenated a deeply
troubled economy and crushed two leftist insurgencies.
He is also greatly admired for his daring rescue of hostages seized by one
of the insurgent groups at the Japanese diplomatic residence in Lima in 1997
by ordering military commandos to storm the residence.
"I am proud of former President Fujimori," said a Parliament member who
attended the February gathering, "because he achieved something no other
Japanese has ever done and may never do again. I am not in a position to
judge whether his government was corrupt, but I have a feeling of strong
sympathy for him that if he returns to Peru he will be in danger."
John Nathan, a professor of Japanese culture at the University of California
at Santa Barbara, said that for many Japanese, especially "this group of
wealthy, patriotic, nationalistic men who support him, Fujimori is kind of a
folk hero, a source of considerable pride, at a time when Japan is searching
its own identity."
"Fujimori is a refugee who fled Peru under questionable circumstances," said
Mr. Nathan, who travels frequently to Japan, "but when he walks into a room
in Japan, you can feel the excitement. There is a buzz. They see in Mr.
Fujimori the type of strong leader Japan has long desired."
Some political analysts attribute Japan's infatuation with Mr. Fujimori
partly to the fact that many Japanese know very little about the charges of
corruption and abuses that have been levied against his government.
"There's been little reported in Japan about the dark side of Mr. Fujimori's
government," said Kei ichi Tsunekawa, professor of Latin American politics
at the University of Tokyo, "and people here don't have enough information
to properly gauge him."
Mr. Fujimori owes much of his popularity here to his rescue of the hostages
in 1997. At the time, Peruvians and foreign governments had nothing but
praise for Mr. Fujimori for carrying out the raid with so few casualties
among the hostages and rescuers.
But Hidetaka Ogura, a former Japanese hostage who was freed in the raid,
said in a recent interview that the hostage crisis could have been resolved
peacefully without force, and he sharply criticized Mr. Fujimori and the
Peruvian military for executing guerrilla hostage takers who he said had
tried to surrender.
Mr. Ogura, who worked for the Japanese Embassy in Peru and often translated
for Japanese politicians who went to visit Mr. Fujimori, described the
former president as an "emperor without clothes" who was heavily dependent
on his aides.
"I think Fujimori should go back to Peru and explain to the people exactly
what happened during his rule," Mr. Ogura said. "That's the responsible,
Japanese thing to do."
But no one expects Mr. Fujimori to return to his birthplace anytime soon, if
ever.
Mr. Fujimori, who did not respond to numerous requests by telephone and
letter for an interview, has said in the past that he plans to remain in
Japan for an indefinite period.
People close to the former president say he passes his days mainly in
solitude in a luxury apartment here writing his memoirs and learning to
adapt to life as a regular citizen.
Several members of Parliament, who met Mr. Fujimori at the February
reception, said Dr. Tokuda, who owns a chain of 170 hospitals in Japan, has
been paying Mr. Fujimori's living expenses.
Dr. Tokuda and Mr. Ishihara, the governor, both declined requests for
interviews. The lawmakers said that they were not necessarily supporters of
Mr. Fujimori and that they had attended the reception because Dr. Tokuda had
been a major contributor to their political campaigns.
The legislators said they had been surprised when Mr. Fujimori made a speech
in fluent Japanese at the reception and later confessed that he had in the
past pretended not to understand Japanese in order "to hear what people
really think."
They said the bill for the evening was about two million yen, or roughly
$17,000, which Dr. Tokuda paid.
No Patience for Terrorists
By SERGIO MUNOZ
It is sad to see Lori Berenson's picture in the news and conclude that an
old activist standard needs rewriting: "The times, they have a'changed."
Timothy McVeigh changed them when he blew up the federal building in
Oklahoma. They changed because we are weary of violence in the name of
idealism and because the U.S. relationship to the world has changed.
Berenson, 31, an American, was found guilty last week in a Peruvian court of
working with a group called the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, or MRTA.
The group's record is one of mayhem, kidnappings and attacks on innocent
people, including U.S. diplomats.
The U.S. State Department and human rights organizations rightly condemned
the secret military trial at which Berenson was convicted almost five years
ago. Her second trial was open and, by all indications, fair. The judges
convicted her of collaborating with terrorists and gave her a 20-year prison
sentence.
Berenson denied the charges, and her demeanor this time was different from
that day, soon after her arrest, when a defiant woman shouted that MRTA was
not a terrorist organization but a revolutionary movement.
Berenson's parents and friends have waged an impressive public relations
campaign. Her lawyers have appealed to Peru's Supreme Court. If that fails,
U.S. lawmakers should resist the temptation to intervene on her behalf.
To look at photos of this seemingly sweet, middle-class white woman who
faces another 15 years in prison is to remember a time when some Americans
had an abundance of mercy for self-professed revolutionaries. This would be
the era in which alleged Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson
is accused of putting a bomb under police car in L.A.
But times have changed. Americans, like Peruvians, have lost all patience
with bombers.
We have encouraged this South American nation to honor the rule of law. Now
we need the discipline to look at one of our own citizens and tell her what
we would have told a Peruvian convicted in Oklahoma of assisting Timothy
McVeigh: "If you do the crime, you do the time."
