Ex-Peruvian president Fujimori awaits decision

Authorities in Chile arrest former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori early Monday on charges of human rights abuse and corruption, police say.

Fujimori is taken into custody at the Marriott Hotel in Santiago after arriving Sunday afternoon on a surprise visit from Japan.

"He did not resist the arrest, on the contrary. He is completely calm," says Marianela Gomez, the head of Interpol in Chile.

It is unclear where he is being held.

Fujimori, who led Peru from 1990 to 2000, has been a fugitive in his ancestral homeland Japan since he fled there in November 2000, when a corruption scandal toppled his government.

"It is my aim to temporarily remain in Chile as part of my efforts to return to Peru and keep my promise to an important part of the Peruvian people who have called on me to be a candidate in the 2006 elections," Fujimori, 67, says in a statement released on Sunday in Peru and Chile.

Fujimori said in October he would run for president despite being barred from political activity due to 21 criminal charges against him. These included corruption and political responsibility for the death squad murders of 25 people, including a child, in the early 1990s.

There are international arrest warrants outstanding for Fujimori. Chilean courts processed a local arrest warrant on Sunday, enabling police to take him into custody.

Peru was planning to launch a suit at the International Court in The Hague this year to try to force Japan to send the former president to Peru for trial.

Japan had refused to extradite Fujimori, born in Peru to Japanese immigrants, because he obtained citizenship after moving there in 2000.

"Our understanding is that he left for personal reasons. Since this is an issue related to his privacy, the Japanese government would like to refrain from commenting," AHN quoted Akira Chiba, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, as saying. V.Y.