Da: "Nello Margiotta" A: Oggetto: Fw: Belgian Buyer In Peru Privatizations Bribed Fujimori With $10Million] Data: venerd́ 21 giugno 2002 18.40 -----Forwarded Message----- Subject: Belgian Buyer In Peru Privatizations Bribed Fujimori With $10 Million Date: 19 Jun 2002 04:02:22 -0700 http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020618/1/2znqi.html Wednesday June 19, 06:21 AM AFP Belgian buyer in protested Peru privatizations may have bribed Fujimori Protesters opposed to privatizing two electrical plants got more grist for the mill from prosecutors > who announced their investigation into allegations the Belgian buyer bribed Alberto Fujimori with 10 million dollars. Five days of rioting against the privatizations spread from Arequipa in the south to Tacna near the Chilean border and even to Lima, preventing the finance minister from delivering a major address for the second time late Monday. Peru's top anti-coruption prosecutor, Luis Vargas Valdivia, said he has requested from the Belgian government testimony from an engineer who may have witnessed Tractebel bribe former president Fujimori between 1996 and 1998. Tractebel, a subsidiary of the French firm Suez-Lyonnaises des Eaux, was the only bidder, offering a total of 167.4 million dollars for the two utilities. News of the sale of the Egasa and Egesur electrical plants near Arequipa immediately touched off rioting, prompting President Alejandro Toledo to send in the army to impose a state of emergency in the city 700 kilometers (450 miles) southeast of Lima. A blue-ribbon committee sent from Lima in search of finding a peaceful settlement were met at Arequipa's airport by stone-throwing crowds who broke the windows out of their tour bus. There were no injures as cabinet ministers, their aides and a former archbishop went sprawling to the floor for protection. In Arequipa, Peru's second-largest city with a population 832,000, groups of demonstrators defied the state of emergency to chant anti-government slogans and bang kitchen pots in a sign of defiance. Thousands of took to the streets of Tacna and burned tires to block roads, including the Pan-American highway, Peru's north-south artery. Chilean authorities prohibited buses and taxis from entering Peru. A State Department announcement advised against traveling to Arequipa due to the uncertain conditons. "Violent clashes are under way at this moment in the north and south of the city," said city official Wilson Mazuelos, adding that property damage was significant in the regional hub, home to 254,000 inhabitants. The trouble began last week when the government decided to forge ahead with the sale of state-owned Egasa and Egesur power utilities in Arequipa. Angry protesters say Toledo has reneged on a pledge he signed in the last year's presidential campaign not to privatize the utility companies. One protester was killed by a tear-gas canister and 100 people were injured during street protests Saturday in the city. Toledo's government declared a month-long state of emergency Sunday and authorized the military to use force to restore order in southern Peru. Army General Oscar Gomez de la Torre placed Arequipa under a dusk-to-dawn curfew. Elsewhere Tuesday, some 3,000 students marched in Cuzco, the ancient Inca capital of the province by the same name that borders Arequipa, in solidarity with the protesters. "Urgent, urgent, we don't have a president," the students chanted. Equally worrying perhaps for the government, the protests spread from the south to another region of the country, the northeast, where demonstrations were reported in Iquitas, home to 500,000 and the biggest city in the Amazon region, where thousands marched against government privatization policies Interior Minister Fernando Rospigliosi said on cable news station Canal N that groups of troublemakers in Tacna had sought to divert an irrigation channel in an attempt to flood the airport but had been prevented from doing so by police. He said the center of the city was virtually blocked to traffic by the protests. Toledo has watched his popularity plummet since he was inaugurated 11 months ago. The latest polls, taken in Lima before the rioting began, placed him at 30 percent and below among residents in the capital.