Inching Toward Negotiations

LIMA, Peru: Peru's seven-week hostage crisis moved closer to resolution after a three-hour meeting between mediators and Tupac Amaru rebels to set the agenda for negotiations with government representatives. Emerging from the Japanese ambassador's residence early Thursday afternoon, Roman Catholic Archbishop Juan Luis Cipriani said that "we are headed toward finding the light of a peaceful solution." Cipriani did not say whether a definite date for talks had been set, but noted that efforts to free the 72 remaining hostages had "advanced positively." President Alberto Fujimori had welcomed the meeting, saying that it "will help us define the eventual sequence of talks." But Fujimori, saying his "cards are on the table," has showed no sign of budging on the one seemingly non-negotiable demand of rebel leader Nestor Cerpa: the release of his Tupac Amaru comrades from Peruvian jails.