DATE=11/09/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=JAPAN / RED ARMY ARREST (LONG ONLY)

NUMBER=2-269024

BYLINE=AMY BICKERS

DATELINE=TOKYO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A leading figure in the Japanese Red Army terrorist group has been apprehended after nearly three decades on the run. As VOA's Amy Bickers reports from Tokyo, police seized 55 year old Fusako Shigenobu near Osaka in Western Japan.

TEXT: Ms. Shigenobu's arrest comes as a surprise since she was thought to be in Lebanon, where the extreme leftist Japanese Red Army has maintained a base for about 30 years. Japanese media reports say that she came to Osaka in mid-July under a false name. When police apprehended her Wednesday in front of a hotel where she was staying, she was disguised as a man.

As police took her to Tokyo for questioning she shouted to reporters that she was determined to fight on.

Ms. Shigenobu is accused of masterminding deadly attacks, kidnappings and hijackings in the Red Army's long campaign against capitalism and the state of Israel. They include a machine gun and grenade attack on Lod Airport in Tel Aviv in 1972 and a 1988 bombing in Naples, Italy. In those incidents, about 130 people were killed or injured. Japanese police say she had been previously charged with hostage-taking during the seizure of the French embassy in the Hague in 1974.

The annual US State Department report lists the Japanese Red Army as one of the world's 28 terrorist organizations. It is believed to have operated from bases in Syria, Libya, North Korea, Lebanon and elsewhere. The Red Army with strong ties to Palestinian extremists lost much of its Arab support after the Israeli-Palestinian peace accord was signed in 1993. Japanese police say members are returning covertly to Japan having lost their traditional countries of refuge.

But even at its height of operations in the 1970s, the group had only about 40 members. It gained worldwide notoriety through its terrorist acts and was able to force Japan and other countries to make concessions in exchange for the release of hostages.

Ms. Shigenbou is the fourth member of the Red Army arrested this year. In March, the police took three others into custody at Narita airport near Tokyo after they were expelled from Lebanon.

The government hopes to extradite several others members from North Korea, which granted them asylum. The issue is one of several issues blocking the establishment of diplomatic ties between Pyongyang and Tokyo. (SIGNED)

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