Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori admitted on Wednesday that he planned the 1992 coup, but denied knowledge of killings and kidnappings.

 

"I took the decision personally although I needed the support of the armed forces," he said during an interrogation by chief prosecutor Jose Pelaez at the purpose-built courtroom in the National Special Operations Directorate building, 7 km from the capital Lima.

 

The former president, ruling the country from 1990 to 2000, said his intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos also attended planning meetings for the coup on April 5, 1992, when soldiers detained leaders of the upper and lower houses of Peru's legislature, senator Felipe Osterling and congressman Roberto Ramirez.

 

However, Fujimori denied he had given orders for, or been told about, arrests of politicians and journalists during the coup, and in particular, he denied knowing who ordered the arrest of journalist Gustavo Gorriti, describing it as "a complete surprise to me."

 

Fujimori was sentenced earlier this month to six years in prison for abuse of power. He is standing a second trial on charges of murder, kidnapping and corruption.

 

Fujimori was charged with ordering a massacre in the Lima suburb of Barrios Altos in 1991 and the 1992 kidnapping of a group of students and teachers at Lima's La Cantuta University, none of whom were ever seen again.

 

He was also charged with the kidnapping of journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer.

 

"I do not give orders," Fujimori said, describing his official role as the supreme chief of the armed forces as "symbolic rather than operative."

 

He restated his earlier claims that neither his ministers, nor armed forces chiefs, nor even intelligence chiefs had given him details of any massacres.

 

The 69-year-old Fujimori also denied any part in the mistreatment of Alan Garcia, who was Fujimori's predecessor as president from 1985 to 1990. Garcia was re-elected last year.

 

Meanwhile, research firm CPI reported that 56.2 percent of Lima residents believed Fujimori is directly responsible for both massacres although another 29.5 percent said he is innocent.

 

CPI said if those surveyed could set a sentence, Fujimori would be jailed for 30 years.

 

Some 59 percent believed he is receiving a fair trial, while 35.1 percent said the trial is biased. A further 53.7 percent held him guilty in a case involving an illegal break-in and search at the home of Trinidad Becerra, wife of his jailed former intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos.

 

Fujimori fled to Japan in 2000 to escape a corruption scandal involving alleged bribes to legislators, and stayed there for five years. In 2005, he flew to Chile, where he might have been preparing for a return to politics in Peru.

 

The former Peruvian leader was arrested in November 2005 in Chile and extradited to Peru in September.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2007)