LEADER OF MRTA TALK TO PRESS, 1997-09-05 (photo)

In a rare appearance before the media, Carlos Aquino (C), a jailed leader of Peru's Marxist rebel group the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement speaks from inside a large cage at Castro Castro maximum security prison September 5. He told foreign reporters that prison conditions have improved recently but were still below international standards. The meeting with the media came a day after seven inmates died in a gun-battle in a common prisoners' jail in Lima. Earlier this year, the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) held 72 hostages for four months to demand the release of about 400 jailed members. PERU RELEASE