Former Peruvian leader hailed as Japanese 'hero' in election race

TOKYO (AFP) - A Japanese political party Thursday hailed former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori as a hero as it launched its campaign to elect the exiled leader to Japan's parliament.

"Alberto Fujimori is the pride of Japan, a hero," Dewi Sukarno, the Japanese widow of Indonesia's first president Sukarno and a television personality, told a rally here.

"He has the courage and heart of a person with Japanese blood, so please vote for Mr Fujimori," she said from atop a van of the opposition People's New Party.

The event, marking the start of campaigning for the July 29 elections, came hours after a Chilean judge rejected Peru's request to extradite Fujimori to face charges for alleged abuses under his rule.

"It was an inevitable decision," said Shizuka Kamei, the acting chief of the People's New Party.

"It was only the Peruvian side that alleges his involvement in crimes," Kamei said in a telephone interview with AFP. "The Peruvian authorities, Fujimori's political enemy, want to prosecute him for political reasons."

Fujimori, born to Japanese immigrants in Peru, led the South American nation for 10 years until 2000, when he fled amid a corruption probe and resigned the presidency in a fax from a Tokyo hotel.

He spent five years in exile in Japan, where he became a cause celebre in conservative circles. He flew unannounced to Chile in 2005 in an apparent bid to return to Peru, but was arrested.

Kamei said his party was asking Foreign Minister Taro Aso to let the former president, who is under house arrest, to come back to Japan as soon as possible. Fujimori has been given Japanese nationality.

"The Japanese government has the responsibility to remove any obstacles for one of its citizens to exercise his rights to run in an election," Kamei said.

Japan rejected similar extradition requests from Peru when Fujimori was in Tokyo, leading relations to deteriorate between the countries.

The Japanese government has stayed silent on the current legal proceedings. Peru is lodging a final appeal with the Chilean courts for Fujimori.

Peruvian critics say Fujimori is seeking the seat in the upper house of parliament primarily to avoid extradition to Peru.

Human rights groups in Japan have accused the small conservative People's New Party of running Fujimori to boost its otherwise low profile.

The academic-turned-politician remains a divisive figure in Peru, where some credit him with salvaging the economy but others accuse him of trampling on human rights as he crushed Maoist rebels.

Dewi Sukarno hailed Fujimori and said he had experienced discrimination due to his Japanese heritage.

"Mr Fujimori has experienced poverty, discrimination, persecution, inequality and terrorism and stood up against them grandly," she said. "It is impossible to find someone greater than him as a member of parliament."