The bodies of all 14 rebels will be exhumed this week

The bodies were the first to be exhumed of 14 guerrillas killed in the military assault that ended a hostage crisis at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima.

The raid was ordered by the disgraced former President Fujimori and resulted in the rescue of all but one of 72 hostages held in the residence.

The probe is another blow for Mr Fujimori who fled to Japan last year amid a corruption scandal.

Prosecutors

The bodies of all 14 Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) rebels will be exhumed this week after state prosecutors ordered them to be examined for evidence of executions.

I want to know the truth. I do not believe anything that Fujimori said

A mother of a dead guerrilla

The clearest sign for this would be a bullet in the middle of the forehead.

Scientists will have post-mortem results in 10-15 days.

Peruvian authorities said one body had evident signs of two bullet holes in the skull.

The government's human rights prosecutor, Ronald Gamarra, said the remains of the still unidentified male had two gunshot wounds in the forehead and another in his left leg.

Families

"I want to know the truth. I do not believe anything that Fujimori said," the 54-year-old mother of one of the dead guerrillas said.

Dozens of nearby dwellers watched the exhumation

Shouts of "Spilt blood will never be forgotten" were heard nearby.

MRTA family members had brought a case alleging "extrajudicial killings" after a former hostage said he saw three rebels alive and tied up outside the building after the raid.

Families of the rebels complained that they were not allowed to see their bodies before they were buried.

The 126-day hostage drama ended on April, 1997, when a unit of the Peruvian military stormed the building.

Extradition

Despite widespread praise at the time for Mr Fujimori's tough action, allegations soon surfaced that not all the guerrillas had been killed during the military assault and that some of them had been executed.

Fujimori has denied the guerrillas were executed

The BBC's South America correspondent James Reynolds says prosecutors will find it very difficult to try Mr Fujimori, who now lives in Japan.

He has Japanese nationality and the Japanese Government does not want to extradite him to Peru.

The alleged crime also took place on Japanese sovereign territory, further complicating the prosecutors' hopes of trying him.

Mr Fujimori says all the rebels died in an initial blast set off by the commandos when they stormed the building.

But Mr Gamarra says that unofficial post-mortems carried out after the siege, along with eyewitness reports, indicate that Mr Fujimori and his former intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos should face murder charges.