JAPAN/PERU: PERUVIAN PRESIDENT ALBERTO FUJIMORI ARRIVES TOKYO / VALENTIN PANIAGUA SWORN IN AS PRESIDENT OF PERU'S CONGRESS

Record ID: 443011

  • Title: JAPAN/PERU: PERUVIAN PRESIDENT ALBERTO FUJIMORI ARRIVES TOKYO / VALENTIN PANIAGUA SWORN IN AS PRESIDENT OF PERU'S CONGRESS
  • Date: 16th November 2000
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (NOVEMBER 17, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. TRACK: (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) PERUVIAN PRESIDENT ALBERTO FUJIMORI AND ENTOURAGE WALKING INSIDE AIRPORT SAYING (IN ANSWER TO QUESTION AS TO WHY HE IS THERE): "I will make that known." 0.19 2. TRACK: FUJIMORI WALKING FOLLOWED BY MEDIA 0.27 3. SV: FUJIMORI GETTING INTO A CAR 0.56 4. SV: POLICE CAR ESCORT 1.01 5. PAN: FUJIMORI'S CAR DRIVES OFF 1.09 LIMA, PERU. (NOVEMBER 16, 2000) (REUTERS--ACCESS ALL) 6. VARIOUS OF WORKERS DEMONSTRATING (3 SHOTS) 1.24 7. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) UNIDENTIFIED WORKER SAYING: "Fujimori needs to resign or be censured by Congress. We ask that Congress assume the responsibility to govern the country and call for clean and transparent elections." 1.34 8. GENERAL VIEW OF DEMONSTRATION 1.39 9. VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF CONGRESS (2 SHOTS) 1.47 10. ZOOM IN OF CONGRESS CELEBRATING OUTCOME OF VOTE, CONGRATULATING MODERATE POLITICIAN VALENTIN PANIAGUA WHO WAS VOTED THE NEW PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS 2.07 11. MV: CONGRESSMEN CHEERING 2.17 12. MV: PANIAGUA SWEARING IN 2.44 13. GENERAL VIEW OF CONGRESS 2.47 14. SV: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) PANIAGUA SAYING: "This comes at a time when there is a lot of confusion and no ability to govern. For that reason this vote has the significance that it has." 3.06 15. PAN: MEDIA SURROUNDING PANIAGUA 3.12 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 1st December 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TOKYO, JAPAN/LIMA, PERU
  • Country: Japan
  • Reuters ID: LVA3NU0K98UL2ZFYOOTSZ3WEJQST
  • Story Text: Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has arrived in Tokyo
    but was tightlipped about rumours that he was seeking
    political asylum in the land of his forefathers.


    "No comment," Fujimori told reporters after stepping
    off a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo on Friday (November
    17), apparently en route home from a brief trip to the
    Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Brunei.

    He refused to be drawn on rumours that he might seek
    asylum in Asia after he flew to Brunei to spend just a few
    hours at the Asia-Pacific summit, leaving behind political
    turmoil at home.

    Fujimori smiled but kept silent when asked whether he
    planned to remain in Tokyo.

    A bribery scandal involving Fujimori's fugitive ex-spy
    chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, plunged Peru into political
    crisis two months ago, prompting the president to announce he
    would quit in July after elections in April, four years early.

    The crisis has sparked demonstrations at home.

    On Thursday Peruvian workers took to the streets to
    protest against Fujimori.

    One worker said: "Fujimori needs to resign or be censured
    by Congress. We ask that Congress assume the responsibility
    to govern the country and call for clean and transparent
    elections."
    Fujimori has said he will not run in the July elections.

    He suffered a new blow at home on Thursday when Peru's
    opposition took over the powerful presidency of Congress for
    the first time in eight years, further eroding his grip on
    power and opening the way for possible moves to oust him.

    As expected, moderate congress member Valentin Paniagua
    was elected president of Congress, constitutionally the fourth
    most powerful post in Peru after Fujimori and his two vice
    presidents, beating a government rival by a comfortable
    13-vote margin.

    It is the first time the opposition has headed the
    legislature since Fujimori closed a divided Congress in 1992
    and awarded himself near-dictatorial powers in a "self-coup".

    That allowed him to clamp an iron grip on the legislature
    when it reopened packed with his supporters, something that
    had eluded him for the first two years of his rule from
    1990-92. His sway over the legislature then remained intact
    until a political crisis erupted in September.

    With imminent changes in the cabinet, there appeared no
    respite to the crisis, which was aggravated further when the
    government felt obliged to deny reports that Fujimori was
    seeking political asylum in Malaysia.

    But it was unclear when Fujimori would return to Peru.

    Peru's political turmoil has centred on Montesinos, who
    fled to Panama after the scandal broke in September but defied
    Fujimori three weeks ago by returning to Peru and sparking a
    major manhunt led personally by the president.

    The ex-spy chief is now wanted on a host of charges from
    money laundering to ordering torture and murder after some $58
    million was found in overseas bank accounts linked to him.


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