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g|vff!7§: tCht ® am track Peruvian president leads manhunt for controversial former spy chief by Monte Hayes j Associated Press LIMA, Peru — Looking like a gener al directing his troops into battle, Presi dent Alberto Fujimori shouted orders to members of an elite police force, de ploying them in a manhunt for his feared former intelligence chief. Vladimiro Montesinos’ unexpected return from exile in Panama on Monday has plunged Peru into political turmoil, and Fujimori was determined to put an end to it, taking personal command of the search for the man who was once his close aide. But Montesinos, once described as a man who prefers the night, slipped away Wednesday as darkness fell over the re sort town of Chaclacayo, in the foothills of the Andes 22 miles east of Lima. ‘ I “He has not been found, but the op eration will continue day and night until he is lQcated,” a grim-faced Fujimori, dressed in a black leather jacket, told re porters who gathered around him on a dusty side street. “One man alone can not be allowed to create this kind of cli mate when we are in a process of tran sition.” Fujimori resumed the search before dawn Thursday, leaving the Government Palace and returning to Chaclacayo with his daughter Keiko, his butler and his per sonal cook, giving the impression he was settling in for a long stay. Agrowing number of skeptics ques tioned Fujimori’s motives for the spec tacular manhunt. Some said it was a show to impress Peruvians who have lost trust in him. Others said Fujimori might be try ing to help Montesinos win political asy lum. Montesinos returned unexpected ly to Peru when Panama refused to grant him refuge. “If we looked at it from a Machi avellian viewpoint, we might think Mon tesinos is trying to present himself as po litically persecuted to seek asylum,” retired army Gen. Daniel Mora said. The former spy chief, who has not appeared in public since his return, is thought to still command the loyalty of much of the military, and many Peruvians have speculated that he returned to force a showdown for power with Fujimori. Earlier in the day, Fujimori ordered a “complete freeze” of the armed forces, confining them to barracks, apparently in case Montesinos loyalists in the army tried to come to his defense. Only minutes before Fujimori an nounced in Chaclacayo that the at tempt to capture Montesinos had failed, the government agreed on a date to hold new elections for Fujimori’s suc cessor. In Lima, an Oiganization of Ameri can States delegation coaxed Fujimori’s government and his opponents back to the bargaining table Wednesday and ham mered out an agreement to hold special elections April 8. Fujimori had announced last month that he would step down in July 2001, four years ahead of schedule, after a leaked videotape showed Montesinos apparently bribing a lawmaker. Fujimori promised new elections and said he would not be a candidate. Within days, Montesinos fled into exile. Justice Minister Alberto Bustamante said Wxinesday the government had with drawn its demand that new elections be contingent on a broad amnesty for mili tary and civilian officials accused of hu man rights abuses stemming from Peru’s battle with leftist guerrillas and drug traf fickers. Opposition leaders and military an alysts charged that Montesinos re turned to use his influence to win laws granting amnesty from prosecution for himself and his cronies, who dominate Peru’s armed forces. Fujimori had endured an avalanche of criticism for letting his once-trusted aide flee Peru a month ago to escape pros ecution. Fujimori said Wednesday he had uiged Montesinos not to return to Pe ru, but instead to go to a neighboring coun try as a tourist. Now with Montesinos’ return, the president decided to hunt down the man who many say was responsible for his success in defeating leftist insurgencies, but who also is blamed for the dirty tricks and smear campaigns against opponents which tainted Fujimori’s election to a third five-year term in May. Fujimori said Montesinos has an or ganized network helping him escape cap ture, a factor that has complicated the search. He did not elaborate. On Wednesday afternoon, Fujimori led a convoy of several dozen vehicles carrying members of an elite police force to an army officers club in Chaclacayo, a hilltown east of Lima where the wealthy have weekend homes. Fujimori barked orders and directed police troopers armed with submachine guns as they hung onto the sides of ve hicles that raced through town. Vowing Montesinos would be tracked down, Fujimori said: “The police will lo cate him and he will be turned over to * judicial authorities.” Fujimori said no arrest order had been issued against Montesinos. “My interest is to locate him to pro vide tranquility for the country,” he said. Experts on Peru’s armed forces said the task of capturing Montesinos may prove difficult. “It’s obvious he’s still being protected by the military. If that were not so, he would have been captured already,” said Fernando Rospigliosi, a political scien tist who is an authority on civilian-mili tary relations. He said there are many people who do not want to see Montesinos arrested. “I can’t imagine Montesinos detained and saying things about the entire mili tary command, about Fujimori,” Rospigliosi said. “He is a man who knows too much about all of them. He’ll escape, or die, but it seems very unlikely to me that he will be captured.” ‘He has not been found, but the operation will contin ue day and night until he is located. One man alone cannot be allowed to create this kind of climate when we are in the process of transition.’ Alberto Fujimori President Submarine from page 4 mits, he said. Up to two-thirds of the crew wei likely blown to bits by powerful expli sions in the weapons room in the sul i-:— marine’s bow, officials said The Kursk’s nuclear reactors were automatically shut down, and there has been no radiation leak. The reactors were “behaving ide — ally, ” Spassky said Thursday. Kuroyedov had warned he might can cel the recovery effort if experts ruled e that divers’ lives were in danger. But President Vladimir Putin promised to recover tire bodies at an emo tional meeting with the crew’s relatives shortly after the disaster, and the gov ernment seemed bent on conducting the costly effort despite the shortage of funds for the military. “We will do all we can,” Putin said Thursday at a meeting with officials in the Kremlin. Some Russian media have pointed out that by stubbornly conducting the risky effort, the government sought to redeem itself for the confused response to the sinking of the Kursk, when it re sisted foreign help for days while botching its own rescue efforts. The cause of the disaster remains un known, with authorities suggesting a col lision with a Western submarine or Wbrld War II-era mine or to an internal mal function. I British teen-agers who killed toddler eligible for parole 0 ■ Boys were 10 when convicted as adults in 1993 Associated Press LONDON — Two boys who were 10 years old when they tortured and killed a toddler in 1993 are now eli gible for parole, a British court ruled Thursday, reversing a politician’s de cision to nearly double their minimum term. The two, who were tried as adults, could be released as early as Febru ary, Lord Chief Justice Woolf said. The ruling reversed a decision by a previous court and a Cabinet min ister to increase the minimum terms to be served by Robert Thompson and John Venables, who were convicted in 1993. The victim, 2-year-old James Bul ger, had been led aWay from a shop ping mall near Liverpool, tormented and beaten to death. Denise Feigus, mother of James, sobbed as the decision was announced in the High Court. Her attorney, Sean Sexton, said she felt “totally let down by the whole legal process.” She had been invited to tell Lord Woolf how she had been affected by the murder, but “she wonders now why she bothered,” Sexton said. After the boys’ attorneys appealed, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in December that Britain vio lated the rights of the defendants by trying them as adults. It also agreed with a 1997 decision by the House of Lords that former Home Secretary Michael Howard was wrong in overruling the trial judge and raising die minimum prison terms from eight years to 15 years. Woolf imposed a new minimum term that expired immediately, and - said the Parole Board would decide when the two could be freed. “I emphasize that the final deci sion as to whether they should be released, and conditions of release, are the responsibility of the board and nothing I have said is to interfere with the board’s discretion,” Woolf said. He added “it is likely that it would be after February 2001 before the Pa role Board could decide whether they should be released and, if so, for the necessary arrangements to be made to enable this to happen.” Woolf said Thompson and Ven ables had done everything possible to redeem themselves following their “horrendous” crime. “The one overriding mitigating feature of the offense is the age of the two boys when the crime was com mitted,” Woolf said. “However grave their crime, the feet remains that if that crime had been committed a few months earlier, when they were under 10, the boys could not have been tried or punished by the courts,” Woolf said. John Dickinson, attorney for Ven ables, said the decision would spare the boys from being transferred to a young offenders institution, which he described as “a hotbed of violence, bullying, sexual intimidation and drugs.” Howard said he disagreed with Woolf’s decision. “I do not believe that it reflects what the trial judge had described as the unparalleled evil nature of the of fense,” Howard said. “My sympa thy goes out to the parents of James Bulger.” I Ttim S? 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No waiting, no cards, no reason to leave your dorm room — except for that pesky little thing called class. www.deskphone.com I I Garnet Circle Student Alumni Council welcomes its new members: Carson Bacon Katie Barrett Cecelia Booker Anna Briggs Reshma Changappa Jennifer Chinault Mary Leigh Dowd Grace Draffin Becky Floyd Meegan Green Sarah Hays Michaela Homung Tara Lovelace Emilie Moca Rachel Moyle Lucia Norton Jennifer Render Nancy Scott William Snyder Kelly Suggs Cassie Taylor Lauren Vaughn Jonathan Winn Nicholas Young Congratulations! CAROLINA ^ALUMNI ASSOCIATION