Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean, Migration & Refugees

CHILE: Peruvian Refugees Fear Fujimori Will Slip Through the Cracks

Gustavo González

SANTIAGO, Sep 18 2006 (IPS) - Representatives of 250 Peruvian refugees in Chile have told IPS that they fear a lack of political will from the Alan García administration in Peru and internal pressures on the Chilean justice system may keep former president Alberto Fujimori from being extradited to Lima.

The first of these political refugees fled to Chile in the mid-1990s, escaping the human rights violations that proliferated under Fujimori (1990-2000), who is currently facing 12 charges in Peru, in cases including corruption and rights abuses.

The campaign to get the former leader into a Peruvian court also has the support of most of the 70,000 Peruvian emigrants who came to Chile over the last decade looking for work.

“The concern is that (former President Alejandro) Toledo (2001-2006) was the one who made the request to extradite Fujimori, and Alan García has done nothing to follow up – he hasn’t ratified it,” Raúl Paiba, president of the Peruvian Refugee Committee, told IPS.

The former president was arrested on Nov. 7, 2005 in Santiago. He arrived unexpectedly from Japan, where, taking advantage of his double Peruvian-Japanese citizenship, he had been living in exile since fleeing his country and resigning from the presidency in November 2000. Congress, however, did not accept the resignation – faxed from Brunei – and instead sacked him, citing “moral incapacity.”

Although Chilean President Michelle Bachelet in May stated definitively that Fujimori would not be allowed to engage in political activities while in Chile, on Sep. 9 complaints from Lima accused the former leader of influencing the designation of candidates for the regional and municipal elections coming up in Peru next November.

With the support of Amnesty International, the Peruvian refugees have held several cultural events in universities and public areas to raise awareness in Chilean society about the importance of ensuring that Fujimori is held accountable for the human rights violations committed during his administration.

A cultural caravan against impunity, comprised of artists, university students and family members of the victims of rights violations perpetrated in Peru, ended its tour Aug. 22, with the delivery of a 27,000-signature petition to Bachelet, demanding that Fujimori be brought to justice.

The petition addresses the concern of human rights groups that Fujimori’s extradition trial process has stalled in Chile’s Supreme Court.

Garcia, the social-democratic president who edged out nationalist Ollanta Humala in a run-off vote, did not mention the “Fujimori” case during his inaugural address Jul. 28, although he did pledge to fight corruption.

On May 18 the Supreme Court let Fujimori out on bail, on the condition that he remain in Chile. The Peruvian exiles called the decision a reaction to extra-judicial pressure.

“We are worried that business relations will end up influencing court rulings,” said Paiba, adding that “The Chilean business community benefited more than anyone during the Fujimori regime.”

According to the committee president, the Fujimori administration handed over copper deposits to Chilean businesses that invested some 500 million dollars in Peru. “That’s why Fujimori came to Chile – this is where his friends are. We even found out that when he was being held at the police academy, he had many visits from business representatives.” Paiba also criticised the Chilean justice system’s inefficiency. “Fujimori entered Chile without any trouble, and was detained only after we protested and certain human rights organisations got involved,” he said.

Furthermore, the refugees have complained of constant harassment which they say is designed to discourage them from continuing to remind the public that Chile is protecting Fujimori’s impunity. In August, a peaceful protest in front of the ex-president’s residence resulted in 10 arrests.

“We have been warned that Peruvians in Chile should not get involved in politics, that we should play by the rules. And lately we have been constantly asked to show proof of residence – the international police are always watching us,” said Paiba.

However, the refugees and human rights organisations are hopeful that Fujimori will eventually face trial, but first they are waiting for the Chilean justice system to rule on the extradition request.

“If Chile has learned anything from the trial of (ex dictator) general (Augusto) Pinochet, it should do the right thing: extradite Fujimori to Peru or try him immediately in Chile for serious human rights violations,” said Amnesty International’s representative in Santiago, Elena Marambio.

Marambio told IPS that significant advances in international law have been made since the creation of the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court and its ratification by most Latin American countries. However, the Chilean Senate has not ratified the Rome Statute, which gave rise to the ICC, so the country falls outside the court’s jurisdiction for trying war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Paiba, who was once the head of the association of university professors in Peru, was taken prisoner and tortured by paramilitaries organised by the Fujimori regime.

“The torture included electric shocks. They also took us to the beach, bound us with inner tubes and rope and threw us in the water to make us give them names,” he told IPS.

“I was also held in isolation in a one-by-one-metre cell, where a light bulb burned day and night, stripping me of any concept of time,” remembered the academic, who added that “all these brutalities were legally protected” under Fujimori.

Peru based its extradition request on 12 charges. The most serious involve a massacre of 15 people – including a young boy – in the Lima neighbourhood of Barrios Altos, and the massacre of nine students and a professor at La Cantuta University. He is also accused of embezzling 15 million dollars for his former security chief Vladimiro Montesinos.

Fujimori was elected president Jun. 10, 1990, defeating renowned right-wing writer Mario Vargas Llosa by taking 56.5 percent of the vote. In 1992, he dissolved Congress, banned political activity and intervened in the judicial branch with the support of the armed forces, who backed his hard-line policy against the guerrilla groups Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.

He governed at the head of what was considered virtually a “civilian dictatorship”, which trampled citizen rights in its all-out offensive against the rebel movements. After he was re-elected Apr. 9, 1995 with 64.4 percent of the vote, he pushed through a constitutional amendment that enabled him to run for a third consecutive term, and went on to win the elections in 2000.

But a huge corruption scandal broke when video recordings surfaced showing Montesinos bribing officials, journalists and members of the business community, and Fujimori resigned in November that year while taking part in a summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum leaders. From there he sought refuge in Japan.

Almost 70,000 people were killed in the so-called “dirty war” against the Peruvian insurgent groups (1980-2000), according to the final report of the independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission.