Japan hails new Peru while hosting ex-president

Paniagua was sworn in to replace Fujimori on Wednesday

November 24, 2000
Web posted at: 12:21 AM HKT (1621 GMT)

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Japan quickly congratulated Peru's new interim president on Thursday, trying to avert a possible diplomatic row while it plays host to deposed president Alberto Fujimori.

Fujimori went to ground in Tokyo a day earlier, slipping out of the posh hotel where he had been holed up for five days and public broadcaster NHK said he would stay at the home of a friend.

"Japan strongly hopes that political stability and democracy will be continuously strengthened under the new president," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ryuichiro Yamazaki said.

Japan said it hoped the transition to a new administration will be achieved in "a peaceful and smooth manner through free elections based on the Constitution," he said in a statement.

"Japan's policy toward... Peru remains basically unchanged," he said, offering congratulations to interim president, Valentin Paniagua, leader of Peru's Congress.

He made no mention of Fujimori, who this week submitted his resignation to Peru's Congress in a fax from his Tokyo hotel but was instead declared "morally unfit" by Peru's Congress and sacked amid allegations of corruption.

Japan, eager to avoid a diplomatic dispute with Peru, has been waiting nervously to see whether and how Fujimori would request to stay in the country of his ancestors.

Fujimori wants to remain in Japan indefinitely

Fujimori holds a diplomatic passport and a visa that allows him to stay in the country until May 3, 2001, officials said.

He emerged from four days of seclusion on Tuesday to give a news conference in the garden of his hotel in which he apologized to his people and said he would seek official permission to stay in Japan for the time being. This is almost a formality.

His parents emigrated from Japan to Peru in the early 1930s and he already has family in Japan. His brother-in-law, Victor Aritomi Shindo, is Peru's ambassador to Tokyo and his son, Hiro Fujimori, lives in japan.

An official in a small southwestern Japan town said Fujimori is eligible to stay because his name is listed in an official family registry kept by the town. This means he has Japanese nationality, the official added.

FUJIMORI GO HOME

However, Japanese media quickly took a stand, with a flurry of editorials on Thursday demanding Fujimori return to Peru and explain to his people why he fled the country.

"It is Fujimori's responsibility as a politician to go back to Peru and explain directly to the people his actions," the national daily Asahi Shimbun said in an editorial.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun financial daily said it was not fitting for him to abandon the democratic process in Peru by fleeing to a third country.

The difficulty of Japan's position is compounded not only by Fujimori's possession of Japanese nationality, but because Tokyo also feels beholden to Fujimori for rescuing diplomats and other hostages held by leftist guerrillas at the Japanese ambassador's home in Lima in a 1997 commando raid.

A Japanese government source said Tokyo was worried about a potential diplomatic row if Peru's new government decided to ask Japan to hand Fujimori over to face possible court trials.

Japan's top government spokesman, Yasuo Fukuda, said on Wednesday that Tokyo had not yet received a request from Fujimori to prolong his stay.

Many Peruvians believe Fujimori is staying in Japan to avoid being targeted in corruption probes involving his former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, his right-hand man for 10 years.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For more ASIANOW news, myCNN.com will bring you news from the areas and subjects you select.

See related sites about East Asia
East Asian media sites

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.