By Veronica Sardon Apr 19, 2007, 3:48 GMT
Buenos Aires - Peru on Sundan plans to remember the 10th anniversary of the raid on the Japanese Embassy in Lima, which put an end to a four-month hostage crisis that shook the world and claimed the lives of 17 people including all the rebels.
Fourteen members of the Marxist Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) had taken hundreds of people hostage during a reception at the ambassador's residence on December 17, 1996 to commemorate Emperor Akihito's 63rd birthday.
The rebels - who had entered the heavily-guarded complex mixed into catering crews and in an ambulance - demanded the release of over 400 fellow-members of the MRTA held in Peruvian prisons, and also criticized conditions in Peruvian jails and what they perceived as the aggressive capitalism of Peruvian government measures.
With the eyes of the world on Lima, many hostages - including most diplomats - were released over the following days. However, the militants held on to 72 men - including Peruvian foreign minister Francisco Tudela and the Japanese ambassador Morihita Aoki - and held talks with government representatives to evaluate the chances of a peaceful solution of the crisis.
In the end, however, some 140 government agents stormed the building through purpose-built tunnels and killed all 14 rebels in the afternoon hours of April 22, 1997. Security forces had built a scale replica of the mansion to practice the operation beforehand.
Most rebels were said to be playing their daily game of indoor football at the time of the raid, and several apparently died due to an explosion in a tunnel under their feet. Two members of state security forces also died in the 40-minute operation, as did one hostage - a Peruvian Supreme Court judge who died of a heart attack after being injured.
Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) largely took the credit for an operation which public opinion in and outside Peru generally applauded. Indeed, the highly-risky military raid appeared to take place largely according to plan, although observers have pointed out that it could easily have devolved into a massacre of innocent hostages.
The hostage crisis was symbolically charged. It ended with the image of Fujimori in a bullet-proof vest, walking among the dead bodies of the leftist rebels, but from the start it involved many elements that have marked Peruvian history in recent years.
Later-disgraced president Fujimori was himself of Japanese descent, as are a large number of Peruvians, and his mother and younger brother were among the initial hostages.
Also held against their will were economic analyst Alejandro Toledo - who was later to be elected Peruvian president (2001-2006) - and Luis Giampietri - the country's current vice-president.
Human rights organizations have condemned the fact that all rebels were killed in the operation. Several of the released hostages said later that they saw at least three rebels had turned themselves in to the authorities, and there are widespread suspicions that they were executed.
Members of the negotiating team have claimed that Fujimori's government used them as little more than a prop to prepare the raid and was never sincere in his disposition to negotiate.
Even the Japanese government was not told of the assault beforehand, even though Lima had assured Tokyo that force would only be used if there was evidence of harm to the hostages.
However, Fujimori had made a name for himself long before this crisis with a similar mix of military efficiency and a dubious regard for human life.
His human rights record remains highly questioned for incidents beyond the hostage crisis, although Peruvians credit him to this day with having showed definitive results in the fight against the Maoist rebels of Shining Path as well as the Marxist MRTA, which had terrorised the country for many years.
Indeed, in a similar dichotomy, Fujimori was thought to have brought Peru's troubled economy under control, on the one hand, and to have caused great damage to the nation's institutions.
His broader democratic record was blemished long before the assault on the Japanese Embassy, since his freely-elected government carried out its so-called 'self-coup' and dissolved the Peruvian Congress in 1992.
Over the years, Fujimori came increasingly under attack for his authoritarian behaviour, and especially for charges of corruption linked to the activities of his security advisor Vladimiro Montesinos, also very closely involved with the violent end of the Japanese Embassy hostage crisis.
In late 2000, Fujimori tendered his resignation by fax from Japan, although his country's Congress declined to accept it and chose to dismiss him instead.
Enjoying the benefits of his dual Peruvian-Japanese citizenship, Fujimori chose to remain in Japan, but was arrested in November 2005 while on a trip to Chile.
He is free on bail since May 2006, but cannot leave Chile pending extradition proceedings put in place by Lima. Peru is intent on trying its once-popular former president on charges of human rights abuses and corruption.
Your Talkback on this Story