PERU: LIMA: BUSINESS AS USUAL AT THE CLINICA ITALIA
(16 Jan 1997) Spanish/Nat
Inside the police lines – and just yards from where Peruvian terrorists are holding 74 people – one of Lima’s best hospitals is trying to carry on with its work.
The Italia Clinic has been forced to put tape on its windows and draw up plans to deal with a flood of wounded.
But as the crisis in the Peruvian capital goes on, the doctors and nurses at the clinic try to pretend that it’s “business as usual”.
(APTV has the first explicit pictures of a side to the residence invisible to the world media until now.)
It’s a side of the besieged Japanese diplomatic compound that the world has not yet seen.
But for two hundred doctors, nurses and patients in the exclusive Italia Clinic the sight can only be viewed with trepidation.
The tape on the windows is to prevent flying glass from bullets or explosives should the month-old siege end violently.
There have been mystery explosions already apparently from mines or grenades placed by Tupac Amaru guerrillas in the compound’s grounds, and bursts of riffle fire in the middle of the night.
Behind the police cordon – and heavily guarded – the clinic is no more than a hundred yards from the Japanese Ambassador’s residence.
Twenty or so guerrillas broke in through this window to take control of a cocktail party on December 17.
But it is business as usual here. Doctors work as normal in a building that looks as if it were in a war zone.
From his room, twenty-four-year-old Freddy Munoz, a former sailor suffering from asthma, can see bullet holes in a shuttered window from the night the rebels took over and exchanged gunfire with police.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
“From the 17 December with all the problems that happened it was very hard. There were a lot of shots, a lot of noise, a lot of nervous tension here in the clinic. There are rooms which have broken windows because of that bomb explosion.”
SUPER CAPTION: Freddy Munoz Chavez, patient
The father of a seriously ill patient is concerned about the fate of the hostages in the silent residence visible through the window.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
“It’s now more than 25 days that they have been inside the residence and as a Peruvian I am worried about the hostages.”
SUPER CAPTION: Irino Delgado, patient’s father
An entire floor of the clinic has been cleared and is on alert should the siege end in bloodshed.
The hospital has made special preparations to treat hostages and captors alike.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
“The clinic has its own contingency plan for these cases. That is giving information and education to our patients and staff in order for us to act as efficiently as possible in case the residence is taken by force. So that we can attend to wounded people, the hostages and the Tupac Amaru guerrillas alike.”
SUPER CAPTION: Dr Ramon Asenjo, Medical director of Italia clinic
When he is not looking out of the window, Freddy Munoz passes his time building model ships from bits of wood, a hobby that was suddenly interrupted a few days ago when shots were heard in the vicinity of the residence.
But should the siege end violently, casualties on both sides wouldn’t have far to go.
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