Скачать или смотреть PERU: SIX DEAD IN MASSIVE PROTESTS

(29 Jul 2000) Natural Sound
XFA
Six people have been killed in massive protests in Lima, where tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in protest at the inauguration of President Alberto Fujimori.
Numerous government buildings were set on fire as protesters repeatedly clashed with riot police.
At least 80 more people - both police and demonstrators - were hurt in the protests.
President Alberto Fujimori's inauguration for a third term in office came on his 62nd birthday and Peru's independence day.
But as tear gas volleys crackled, his scripted finest hour turned into his darkest one.
The largest opposition protest against his decade in power and his tainted election victory degenerated into pitched street battles.
Some 15-hundred students armed with clubs and hard-line workers charged and riot police countercharged throughout the day.
By nightfall, things had calmed down a little but the fires were still burning in the National Bank building where four people had died.
Riot police, water cannon trucks and armoured personnel carriers patrolled the streets as Fujimori was sworn in.
Demonstrators taunted the police, then charged their lines.
The police responded with tear gas, firing directly into the crowds.
Gunshots were also fired by riot police and for hours, in fits and bursts, the battle raged from one street corner to the next.
As fire raged in the 14-storey former Education Ministry, now an office tower, demonstrators wouldn't let firefighters approach at first, fighting with them for control of water hoses.
Vandals tried to use a stop sign as a battering ram against the tall wooden doors of the Palace of Justice, then lobbed fire bombs through the windows,
Two opposition congress members, along with other opposition leaders, tried to persuade protesters to stop hurling rocks.
They ignored the pleas and police fired tear gas again.
Protesters charged, pushing police back.
Vandals then set fire to the 13-storey National Bank and the six-storey building across the street containing the National Elections Board, which supervised the election that many say was rigged in Fujimori's favour.
In a news conference after the violence abated, Toledo blamed the unrest on what he said were dozens of pro-Fujimori infiltrators sent to discredit the protesters.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"These incidents are the exclusive responsibility of Fujimori's government. I repeat, Lima has become a military battle ground."
SUPER CAPTION: Alejandro Toledo, Opposition candidate
Fujimori still rates 43 percent support in opinion polls for his success in stabilising the economy and beating the Shining Path and other guerrillas who took Peru to the brink of civil war in the early 1990s.

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