World
Institutional
links
Welcome back on
26 -29 August,
ONS 2008
Bridging
the energy gap
is ONS 2006 theme,
from 22-25 August,
in Stavanger, Norway
Petroleumworld
Business
Partners:
Centre for
Global Energy
Studies
  |
|
"Last Samurai" Fujimori loses Japan election bid
AFP
TOKYO
Petroleumworld.com 07 30 07
Peru's ex-president Alberto Fujimori has lost his bid for a seat in Japan's parliament after a campaign casting himself as "The Last Samurai" while under house arrest in Chile, results showed Monday.
Fujimori, who holds Japanese nationality thanks to his ancestry, entered the race for Japan's upper house last month in a dramatic twist to the career of the former strongman who is wanted by Peru for alleged human rights abuses.
The 69-year-old, who cannot leave a house in Santiago, is believed to be the first former head of state ever to seek national office in another country.
He accepted the defeat, indicating that he hopes to return to politics in Peru once the extradition issue is settled.
"My main aim at this time remains to show my innocence in the extradition process in Chile," he said in a statement issued by his office.
Fujimori said that although his election bid in Japan had failed, "today I reaffirm my will to work to strengthen relations between Peru and Japan."
Fujimori ran as a candidate of a tiny political party in what critics saw as an attempt to thwart extradition efforts by Peru to bring him to trial.
The People's New Party, a small conservative opposition group, won just two out of the 121 seats up for grabs, official results showed.
Fujimori was running on a proportional representation ticket. The party secured only one such seat and the former president was fourth on its list with 51,430 votes, official figures showed, dashing his election hopes.
Fujimori borrowed his slogan from a Tom Cruise film, calling himself "The Last Samurai," and pledging in a campaign video from Chile to restore Japanese traditional values of hard work and humility.
As president, the US-educated academic was widely credited with taming economic chaos and subduing Peru's violent Maoist Shining Path insurgency.
Critics say, however, that in the process he crushed civil liberties, rigged elections and committed human rights abuses, including murder.
He fled to Tokyo in 2000 amid a corruption probe and faxed his resignation from a hotel.
After five years of exile in Japan, Fujimori unexpectedly arrived in Chile in November 2005, hoping to run in Peru's 2006 presidential election, leading to his arrest in Santiago and prolonged trial with the Chilean justice system.
AFP 30 0551 GMT 07 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All rights reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels