8A
Monday, January 13, 1997
Uncertainty still prevails in Peruvian hostage crisis
But rebels appear to desire an end without bloodshed
The Associated Press
LIMA, Peru — The resolution of hostage-takings in Latin America has ranged from the successful in Nicaragua to the tragic in Colombia and the near-comic in Costa Rica.
In Peru's own hostage ordeal,
experience offers no guarantees.
Some rebels got what they wanted. Some settled for safe passage out of the country. Some were paid off. Some died.
This time, circumstances may be on the side of a bloodless way out—partly because the Tupac Amaru rebels holding 74 hostages seem eager to look good in their time in the spotlight.
"They can't behave badly. They are
"It shouldn't go on too long because every second can turn into a tragedy."
RosemburgPalon Formerrebelleader
talking with the international community ... which they want to impress favorably," said Hernando de Soto, head of a Lima think-tank.
But each day that goes by in the standoff at the Japanese ambassador's residence — about to enter its fourth week — increases the potential for violence, said Rosemburg Palon, a former rebel leader
who engineered a 1980 takeover of the Dominican Republic's embassy in Bogota, Colombia.
"It shouldn't go on too long because every second can turn into a tragedy," he said from his home in Cali, Colombia.
Palon has offered to advise negotiators in Lima. "Our experience was modest, but we believe it can be useful," he said.
Peru's hostage-taking shares aspects of virtually every high-profile hostage-taking in Latin America during the past three decades.
Most takeovers were more rooted in ideology than anything else. Some wanted changes in government policies, or freedom for fellow rebels, as is the case in the Peruvian crisis.
The Tupac Amaru in the past were prone to less-than-suble ways of making their political points, Jordan said. "They blew a 40-foot hole in the (U.S.) Embassy wall, they used to blow up Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants — the anti-imperialist thing," he said.
Quick LOOK At the World
Guerrillas bombard Israeli-backed militia
The Associated Press
RASHAYA, Lebanon — Guerrillas attacked Israeli-backed militiamen in southern Lebanon yesterday with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, security officials said. Israel responded with artillery fire.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that they had
no reports of casualties from the attack by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas on the Zoummaraya outpost just inside Israel's self-styled "security zone" in southern Lebanon.
Shortly after the 3 p.m. attack, Israeli artillery blasted suspected guerrilla targets near the villages of Maldoun and El ein-Tineh southeast of Zoummaraya, they said.
Guerrillas of the Shite Muslim Hezbollah want to drive out the 1,200 Israeli soldiers and 2,500 allied Lebanese militiamen from the south Lebanon border enclave.
The enclave, which Israel established in 1985 to guard against crossborder guerrilla attacks, has a predominantly Shiite population of 200,000.
The Associated Press
Milosevic seems unable to control discontent in ranks
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — Overshadowed by pro-democracy protests, a power struggle is brewing in the top ranks of President Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist party. The outcome of that struggle will determine Serbia's future.
Power struggle in Serbia may determine its future
Demonstrations have acted as a catalyst between neo-Communist hardliners and their opponents. The arguments, over ideology and privileges, are now exploding into open battles that Milosevic seems unable to control.
The liberals seem to be winning. Some have come out openly to back opposition demands that the Socialists cede control of Belgrade, 13 cities and towns won by the opposition in Nov. 17 elections. And the Milosevic regime, which sparked the protests by annulling opposition victories in those communities, is now inching toward a full rollback after nearly eight weeks of street protest.
"He has to be conciliatory not to destroy his party — because he would destroy himself," said Mihajo Markovic, a former Milosevic confidant.
Milosev is being carried along with the tide.
So when the conflict ends — however it does, Milosevic probably will head a party more inclined to play by democratic rules. His
new camp probably will opt for dialogue with the opposition to improve its authoritarian image.
Slobodan
Milosevic
In a very literal way, Milosevic's problems are a family affair.
The deep cracks that are
showing up now first began to show in 1995 when Milosevic decided to ally his Socialist party with the neo-Communist party of his wife, Miriana Markovic.
It was Milosevic's wife who insisted on the alliance, said Mihajlo Markovic, the former top Socialist.
"He is very devoted to her," said Markovic. "She's the first girl he went out with, and she can always put him in the dog house if he doesn't do as she wants."
"The vast majority of the Socialists were against such a coalition," Markovic said.
Some were ideologically opposed to her Yugoslav United Left party, which mixes Marxism with nostalgia for the now-destroyed Yugoslav federation. Others accused her associates of using their power to enrich themselves. Markovic described her top followers as war profiteers.
A member of the former party said dismissals of himself and like-minded associates in 1995 silenced open dissent about the alliance with the neo-Communists.
Dissent became vocal again last
"He has to be conciliatory not to destroy his party—because he would destroy himself." Mihajlo Markovic Former confidant of Milosevic
year when Milosevic decided to give his wife's party a third of the seats in the Serbian parliament. The party won a little more than 3 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections.
Former Yugoslav President Borisav Jovic, who ordered army tanks to roll against anti-Milosevic protesters in 1991, said the coalition with the neo-Communists was the main reason for the unrest among the Socialists.
That unrest has grown to demands for reforms within the Socialist party with liberals demanding the removal of close Milosevic associates who wrongly brot from their positions.
"Managers of big firms are at the same time members of government or leading members of the party," Mihajlo Markovic said. "Such accumulation of power permits great abuses of the law."
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