>From: "red-rebel" <red-rebel@supanet.com> >Subject: Japan: Red Army Woman Held After 3 Decades On The Run - Rueters >Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 > >Japan Red Army Woman Held After 3 Decades on Run >====================================== >By George Nishiyama > >TOKYO (Reuters) - The 30-year reign of a woman dubbed the ''empress'' for >her long leadership of one of the world's most notorious extremist groups >ended on Wednesday with her capture outside a hotel in western Japan. > >Fusako Shigenobu, 55, who media reports said had checked into the hotel >disguised as a man, smiled and gave a thumbs up sign to reporters and a >crowd of onlookers as she arrived in handcuffs at Tokyo Station, where >police had brought her by train from the city of Takatsuki. > >Shigenobu, leader of the leftist Japanese Red Army, had spent years on the >run from international law enforcement authorities. > >Her arrest in Japan came as a surprise, because she had been believed to be >living in Lebanon. She was reported to be carrying a laptop computer and >several floppy disks when arrested, media reports said. > >Police said she was being held for her alleged role in violent crimes by the >Japanese Red Army -- once one of the world's most feared extremist groups. > >Government officials expressed relief at her arrest, and the news vied for >top billing in Japanese evening newspapers with the U.S. presidential >election. > >Evening television news programs carried live aerial footage of her being >brought to the capital. > >``It's great that a person who was involved in all sorts of terrorist acts >from the late 60s has been arrested,'' Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori was >quoted as saying by Kyodo news agency. > >The top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, told a >news conference: ``I hope her arrest will become a stepping stone leading to >the capture of other members still on the run.'' > >On Wanted List > >Shigenobu had been on the international wanted list for allegedly >masterminding the Japanese Red Army's 1974 attack on the French embassy in >the Netherlands city of The Hague, in which it took the French ambassador >hostage in return for the release of an imprisoned comrade. > >The Japanese Red Army was born out of the 1960s anti-Vietnam War movement >and advocated the destruction of capitalism. Its members fought at home >against the presence of U.S. forces in Japan and then in the early 1970s >took their struggle overseas. > >Shigenobu, originally a member of the Red Army Faction group, traveled to >Lebanon in 1971 and founded the Japanese Red Army, which linked up with >Palestinian extremists to become an implacable foe of Israel. > >The Japanese Red Army became known in the 1970s for a series of deadly and >spectacular attacks, ranging from plane hijackings to hostage taking. > >Among those was the 1972 attack on Israel's Lod airport in which 26 people, >including two Red Army members, were killed in a hail of machine-gun fire >and grenade blasts. > >Last May, Tokyo police arrested four Red Army members who allegedly took >part in various hijackings, embassy seizures and other crimes after they >were deported from Lebanon. > >But Lebanon granted political asylum to another member, Kozo Okamoto, for >his role in operations against Israel. > >Okamoto, who was arrested for the attack on Lod airport and imprisoned in >Israel, had been freed in 1985 in an exchange of prisoners between Israeli >and Palestinian forces. > >But with the end of the Cold War and moves for peace accelerating in the >Middle East, the group's presence became troublesome for many Arab nations >and it was dealt a blow after it reportedly lost its base in Lebanon in >1997. > >Shigenobu's arrest may spell the end of the weakened organization, Japanese >media said. > >The Japanese Red Army had its roots in another extreme leftist group, the >Red Army Faction. > >Members of that group were allegedly responsible for hijacking a Japan >Airlines (JAL) plane on a domestic flight and forcing it to fly to Pyongyang >in March 1970 in what was Japan's first hijacking. > >The suspects were granted political asylum in North Korea >and their extradition to Japan has been one of the issues hindering >normalization of ties between Tokyo and Pyongyang. >===================================================
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