Montesinos Asylum Claim "a Farce"
Human Rights Watch today wrote to Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso, urging her to deny political asylum to Vladimiro Montesinos, the former Peruvian spy chief. The former head of Peru's National Intelligence Service (Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional, SIN), arrived in Panama on Saturday night. The organization also called on the Panamanian justice authorities to investigate and prosecute Montesinos for grave violations of human rights, consistent with Panama's obligations under the United Nations Convention against Torture.
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Call for Fujimori Exit
President Alberto Fujimori (who on September 16 called for new elections in Peru and announced that he would not present himself as a candidate) should stand down immediately in favor of a caretaker president who can enjoy the confidence of all political sectors.
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The "March of the Four Corners"
On July 28, Peru's independence day, President Alberto Fujimori Fujimori was sworn in for his third consecutive term of office, after one of the most seriously questioned elections the continent has seen in recent years. He received the presidential sash in a congressional ceremony ostentatiously boycotted by opposition members.

Outside the congress building, Lima was a city under siege. The "March of the Four Corners" (Marcha de los Cuatro Suyos), named for the cardinal points of the Inca empire and organized by opposition leader Alejandro Toledo as a massive popular protest against Fujimori's reelection, had arrived in Lima two days previously. The protest was intended to be massive and peaceful. Yet, prevented by police cordons from reaching their destinations (the Congress building and the presidential palace), some of the protesters turned violent.

Small groups brandishing sticks and throwing stones went on the rampage in the city center and police responded indiscriminately with water cannons and tear gas. The skirmishes continued all day and into the night. At about 10:30 a.m. on the 28th vandals set fire to the former Ministry of Education (which now houses the civil courts). At noon, three MIGs of the Peruvian air force flew low overhead as young thugs broke the windows of the Palace of Justice and threw in gasoline-soaked rags, starting fires on the ground and upper floors. Two hours later it was the turn of the headquarters of the National Electoral Jury, and the adjacent National Bank. Six security guards died of asphyxiation in the fire in the National Bank, which was completely destroyed. Firemen and several journalists were attacked and beaten. At least eighty people were injured, many of them struck on the head or the body by tear gas canisters. The National Police reported making 106 arrests, but the real number was double this figure.

On the day before the violence, some 20,000 marchers, including many who had made arduous journeys by bus, marched through the streets of Lima in a peaceful procession which converged in a mass night-time rally in the Paseo de la República. Not a single act of violence was reported. Only one of the capital's television stations, the cable station Channel ‘N', covered the march. Popular newspapers which are widely believed to take their cues from the National Intelligence Service, however, were already predicting violence: "Toledo: so, if Lima burns, what can I do?" read one headline.

The events of July 28 will have a profound impact on Peru's troubled politics. President Fujimori is already using the violence to discredit the movement for democracy and Alejandro Toledo. He has accused Toledo's supporters of a frustrated plan to burn down the Congress building, and has called on the police, army and intelligence service to "preserve Peru from the chaos promoted by a recalcitrant opposition group." Toledo heads the list of people now facing criminal charges for the violence. By such accusations, Fujimori hopes to drive a wedge between the movement led by Toledo, and more "moderate" sectors of the opposition who are already cooperating with the new government (as the marchers gathered in Lima, Fujimori appointed former opposition leader Federico Salas as his new prime minister). Toledo has blamed government intelligence agents for infiltrating the march and provoking the violence. The march organizers say they have videotapes, photographs, and other evidence to prove it.

Human Rights Watch's Peru researcher, Sebastian Brett, was in Lima for the march. He was one of three hundred civil society observers who participated in a monitoring effort organized by the National Human Rights Coordinating Group (Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos). The observers wore yellow jackets identifying them as "human rights defenders" and were equipped with cell phones, disposable cameras and home-made gas masks. During the morning of July 28, Sebastian got separated from his fellow observers, and his cell phone refused to function. He was not aware that the Coordinadora had called in its observers after the violence got out of control during the morning. As a result, Sebastian was in the streets until 3:30 p.m. He photographed the attack on the Palace of Justice from the Sheraton hotel room occupied by the BBC c rew covering the march.

A true account of what really happened on Independence Day will have to be pieced together from many sources in the days and months to come. Here, Sebastian contributes observations from his log and poses some of the questions that need answers. (The views he expresses do not necessarily reflect those of the Coordinadora.)

> > > DISPATCHES FROM LIMA