> Japanese Red Army Founder Arrested ============================ > Copyright 2000 Los Angeles Times > > By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press Writer > > TOKYO--Police arrested a fugitive founder of the lethal left-wing Japanese > Red Army on Wednesday, ending more than 25 years underground for a leader of > a terrorist force blamed in a 1972 massacre at an Israeli airport and a > series of other attacks. > Police captured the 55 -year-old Fusako Shigenobu as she left a hotel > in the western city of Osaka with two companions. > "I'll fight on!" Shigenobu shouted on arrival in Tokyo under heavy > escort, raising her handcuffed wrists high in the air to give a defiant > thumbs-up sign. > Japan's TV networks covered her transfer to the capital live, > alternating reports on the progress of the bullet train with updates on the > U.S. presidential election. > Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori praised her captors: "I highly commend the > police for arresting the leader of the Red Army, which had carried out > terrorism and guerrilla activities since the 1960s." > Shigenobu was arrested on a Japanese warrant accusing her of taking > hostages in a 1974 attack on the French Embassy at The Hague, Netherlands, > police said without elaboration. > Authorities in the September 1974 attack ultimately freed a jailed Red > Army member in return for the militants' release of the French ambassador. > Police did not comment publicly on how they found the left-wing leader. > Japan's Kyodo news agency said authorities received a tip in July that she > was in Japan. > In late October, investigators spotted a woman matching her description > at a hide-out of leftist radicals, Kyodo said. > Shigenobu previously had been thought to be outside Japan. She had been > on wanted lists worldwide. > Shigenobu was a member of the original Red Army, formed in Japan amid > the student unrest of the late 1960s. Facing intense police pressure and > hoping to start a worldwide movement, she left Japan to set up a splinter > group, called the Japanese Red Army, in Lebanon in 1971. > The Japanese Red Army carried out several high-profile terrorist > attacks, including the 1972 shooting at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv that > killed 24 people. > Three Red Army members launched the assault with grenades and machine > guns. Shigenobu's husband and another Red Army member died in the attack. > Israel sentenced the only survivor among the attackers to life in prison. > In 1975, the group took hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, > Malaysia. In 1977, Japanese Red Army members hijacked a Japan Airlines plane > to Dhaka, Bangladesh. > Investigators also suspect the group in a rocket attack on the U.S. > Embassy in Rome in 1987. > The group is not blamed in a major attack since a car bombing at a U.S. > military club killed an American and four other people in Naples in 1988. > Several Japanese Red Army leaders were given safe haven in Lebanon > because they were seen as heroes for the Israeli airport attack and for > their support of the Palestinian cause. > In March, however, four were arrested after Lebanon agreed to deport > them. Lebanon granted asylum to one leader, Kozo Okamoto, citing his > "physical and psychological injuries." > A National Police Agency official said at least six leading Japanese > Red Army members from the 1970s remain at large. > > > >
