TOYKO : A fingerprint found near the scene of mortar attacks on three embassies in Jakarta last month has been identified as that of a member of the terrorist Japanese Red Army, police said Friday.
The National Police Agency said the fingerprint, one of two supplied by Indonesian investigators, matched those on file of Tsutomu Shirosaki, 38, identified as a member of the group now based in Lebanons Bekaa Valley.
Crude mortars were fired May 14atthe US. Canadian and Japanese embassies in the Indonesian capital, causing minor damage but no injuries. Launchers were found in a room at the nearby President Hotel.
Police did not say where the fingerprints were found but expressed surprise at the possible involvement of the Red Army, which was behind several major terrorist incidents in the 1970s but has been largely inactive in recent years. The Red Army, which seeks world revolution, was responsible for the 1972 massacre at the Tel Aviv International Airport in which 26 people died, and for several subsequent hijackings.
Shirosaki was believed to have been one of the five Red Army commandos who hijacked a Japan Air Lines DC-8 with 150 people aboard over India in September 1977 and forced it to land in Dhaka, Bangladesh,
The hostages were freed after Japan said a ransom of $6 million and released six jailed convicts. The hijackers later disappeared in the Middle East.
The case sparked intense criticism of Japan for giving in to the hijacker’s demands and left the government sensitive to appearing soft on terrorism.
About 30 Red Army guerrillas are believed to still be training in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley under the group’s female leader, Fusako Shigenobu, 40.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 27, 1986
