PERU HIT BY ANOTHER SCANDAL

LIMA, Peru (AP) - The scandal stunned Peruvians, sent ripples through the
international community and may have contributed to President Alberto
Fujimori (news - web sites)'s decision to break from his powerful spy chief.

But it had nothing to do with a videotape apparently showing intelligence
head Vladimiro Montesinos bribing an opposition lawmaker. This was Peru's
other scandal: a clandestine pipeline smuggling arms to Colombian
guerrillas.

Colombia has cast doubt on Peru's explanation that the smuggling was
committed by rogue former military officers - and many here suspect Peru's
military was behind the arms sales.

That has in turn raised questions about the role of Montesinos, a
behind-the-scenes operator who controlled a vast network of informers and
had enormous influence inside the armed forces.

After the bribery scandal erupted, Fujimori decided Sept. 16 to dismantle
the feared National Intelligence Service, or SIN, and cut short his own
presidency. Montesinos fled to Panama.

But many think Fujimori's fallout with his top aide came not over the
bribery scandal, but because of the growing allegations that Montesinos had
a hand in the arms sales to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
FARC, the rebel group battling the government in Peru's Andean neighbor.

``There are poweful doubts'' about the arms sales, retired army Gen. Sinecio
Jarama said. ``This is being managed by Montesinos.''

At an Aug. 21 press conference, Fujimori credited Montesinos with breaking
up the ring, presenting his spy chief in a rare public appearance.

Former army Lt. Jose Luis Aybar and his brother Luis Frank Aybar, a military
contractor, were arrested in the case. Fujimori said the two led a ring that
parachuted at least 10,000 assault rifles, obtained in Jordan, into
rebel-held Colombian territory between March and July of 1999.

A diplomatic firestorm ensued. Jordan flatly contradicted the account, and
Colombian President Andres Pastrana said ``we have doubts'' about Fujimori's
explanation.

Jordan's government said the Russian-made Kalashnikov assault rifles were
legally sold to Peru in 1998. Jordan officials said they dealt with Peruvian
generals.

Meanwhile, Peruvian media dug up links between the Aybar brothers and the
intelligence network headed by Montesinos.

Before his arrest, Jose Luis Aybar sent a videotape to the TV station Canal
N in which he said he had thought he was involved in a military intelligence
operation when he got involved in the weapons deal.

Also, an opposition congressman, Fernando Olivera, said he received a letter
smuggled from prison by Luis Frank Aybar, who claimed his brother was being
tortured to prevent him from implicating Montesinos in the smuggling.

Aybar said his brother was held in a military base, ``a victim of beatings
and torture to make him accept his guilt and not to mention Dr. Montesinos
at all,'' according to the letter, which Olivera distributed to the press.

Critics say the announcement that Montesinos broke the ring was an attempt
to divert blame for the arms shipments. Colombia says it alerted Peru to the
smuggling months before the announcement.

Fujimori has vehemently rejected any suggestions of government misconduct,
saying, ``The sale, I repeat, was not to the armed forces of Peru.''

U.S. officials have been careful to remain neutral about the arms deal. The
scandal comes as the United States is seeking to unite the hemisphere behind
Plan Colombia, which is costing Washington $1.3 billion to fight the
Colombian drug trade, and indirectly, guerrilla groups that finance their
insurgencies through drug money.

Mirko Lauer, a top political columnist for newspaper La Republica, said
Montesinos' flight to Panama may also have been motivated by the
fast-unraveling arms scandal.

``Perhaps Montesinos didn't fly the coop so much to save himself from the
demands of the Peruvian judicial process, but to avoid deepening accusations
about arms trafficking to the FARC,'' Lauer recently wrote.