USA: WASHINGTON: PRESIDENT ALBERTO FUJIMORI INTERVIEW

Описание: (3 Feb 1997) Spanish/Nat

Peruvian President, Alberto Fujimori, spoke to APTV in Washington D-C in an exclusive interview Monday.

He talked about the hostage crisis in Lima, but also about poverty and the narcotics traffic in his country.

In the wake of conversations with US President Bill Clinton, Peruvian leader Alberto Fujimori told APTV what steps he plans to take toward a peaceful solution to the hostage crisis in Lima.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"To promote the already in-progress conversations, to advance over that strategy and then to have a work-frame to then begin in a definite manner. That will be the first step to take."
SUPER CAPTION: Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru

He was enthusiastic about his meeting with President Clinton today (Monday), after being praised for his handling of the Lima hostage crisis.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"It was an exceptional and on-going support to the Peruvian strategy, but he made again, and this is very very important for us and I think with the American position and the Japanese statement all over the world it is agreed on our strategy."
SUPER CAPTION: Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru

Fujimori talked about Lori Berensen, who was sentenced to life in jail last year after being accused of being an M-R-T-A rebel.

The U-S thinks she should be released after expressing doubts about the legality of her trial last year

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Let me say now first that Lori Berensen is a member of the M-R-T-A which is a terrorist movement and everybody knows their actions. We were having talks about the Lori Berensen case between officials of the foreign ministries and this has been stopped. We don't know what it's going later after we've seen that Ms. Lori Berensen is in fact a member of a real terrorist group."
SUPER CAPTION: Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru

Fujimori was in Washington to attend an international gathering on small business loans.

He explained how the Microcredit programme would affect Peruvians, given that Peru is one of the poorest countries in Latin America.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"It is a poverty that we are currently combating in a very effective manner. One of the pillars is the issuance of legal property titles which up to now has been very informal. We hope to achieve one million titles by the year two thousand. This is a very impressive number since it signifies one quarter of the Peruvian population. With those titles and with the assistance from the organisation "MI BANCO", the bank of the Microcredit, then the titles can be disbursed massively."
SUPER CAPTION: Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru

Fujimori also met General Barry McCaffrey, the head of the Anti Narcotics Programme in the U-S.

The Peruvian President said he disagreed with the certification policy of the U-S towards countries with problems in narcotics trafficking.

The certification policy is essentially a blacklist of countries the US says are not doing enough to fight the drugs trade.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We don't agree with this kind of proceedings, but whomever decides to evaluate my government's developments will notice that there are noticeable advances in the war on drugs. For example we have reduced the production of Coca leaves in 18 per cent."
SUPER CAPTION: Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru

Fujimori did not want to comment on the possibility of him running for the next Presidential election, something banned by the country's constitution which is now being examined by the courts.

SOUNDBITE:(Spanish)
SUPER CAPTION: Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru


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