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Japan cool to request for help to bring Fujimori back
Posted: 05 July 2007 1725 hrs



TOKYO : Japan indicated Thursday that it has no plans for now to ask Chile to allow former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori to return for this month's upper house election.

Shizuka Kamei, leader of the People's New Party, which is backing Fujimori in the July 29 election, urged Foreign Minister Taro Aso to take up the issue with the government of Chile where the former president is under house arrest.

But Aso replied, "The Japanese government will keep observing the development of the judicial procedures in Chile," his ministry said in a statement.

Kamei said Wednesday he would do everything possible to try to bring Fujimori back to Japan in time for the upper house election.

Fujimori, 68, holds both Japanese and Peruvian citizenship. The Peruvian authorities are seeking his extradition on a dozen criminal charges stemming from his 1990-2000 presidency.

The former strongman fled to Japan in 2000 from allegations of rampant corruption in Peru, resigning the presidency by fax from a Tokyo hotel.

He has been under arrest since he unexpectedly arrived in Chile in November 2005 hoping to run in Peru's 2006 presidential election.

Kamei said earlier this week that if Fujimori was not allowed to return, the party would have to campaign on the ex-president's behalf in his absence.

- AFP /ls