Lima  - There is a horror story behind the Pentagonito, the fortress in Lima where this weekend's 16th annual Leaders' Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) was held.

According to witnesses, the Pentagonito, or little Pentagon, was the site of several murders during the regime of Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000).

Ecuadorian Sergeant Enrique Duchicela was one of the victims. He spied on Peru as a representative at his country's embassy in Lima until the Peruvian military discovered his activities.

Duchicela was tortured at the Pentagonito until he confessed, before being killed and incinerated inside the fortress. His own government did not even file a complaint.

Former Peruvian intelligence officer Jesus Sosa, who admits partipating in the execution, tells the story in great detail in Muerte en el Pentagonito (Death at the Pentagonito), a book by reputable investigative journalist Ricardo Uceda, who recounts several cases.

The seat of the APEC summit is actually the headquarters of the Peruvian Army, and it gets the name Pentagonito from the shape of its perimeter. For the summit, it was euphemistically being called the Ministry of Defence Convention Centre and was picked as one of the few places in Peru where the security of some 20 national leaders could be assured.

The Pentagonito was strategically important during the regime of Fujimori, who had very close ties with the Peruvian military. The president even had an apartment in a high building on the grounds, where he had a panoramic view of a large portion of Lima.

According to Sosa, who is currently jailed, the Army's Intelligence Service had cells in the basement of the Pentagonito.

There, baker Justiniano Najarro and university students Keneth Azualdo and Javier Roca were detained, tortured and killed for their alleged ties to the Maoist guerilla group Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path.

Their bodies were never found; Sosa says they were cremated on site. That was Sosa's specialty, and he was known in military circles by the alias Kerosene.

Following Fujimori's "self-coup" of 1992, prestigious opposition journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer - who had disagreements with powerful presidential advisor Vladimiro Montesinos - were also taken to the Pentagonito.

Some say that their captors intended to kill them both and make sure their bodies were never found, but their arrests and whereabouts inside the fortress became public, and Gorriti and Dyer were eventually released.

Their illegal detentions, legally charged as kidnapping, are part of the human rights case against Fujimori, who is currently imprisoned.

For Peru, the times have changed. With democracy restored, the Pentagonito and its occupants in Lima's middle-class San Borja district no longer inspire fear.

Despite tight security for the APEC summit, joggers trudged past as usual on Saturday. (dpa)