Subject: [cwj 50] Okinawa protests at US marine's sexual assault
From: Corporate Watch in Japanese <cwj@corpwatch.org>
Date: Wed, 05 Jul 2000 15:30:41 -0700
Seq: 50
Okinawa protests at US marine's sexual assault TOKYO, July 5 (AFP) - Japan's Okinawa island broke into angry protests Wednesday after a drunken US marine was accused of sexually molesting a 14-year-old school girl in her home. Okinawa's prefectural assembly demanded apologies from the US embassy and military authorities. And 100 labor unionists staged a rally demanding the removal of US bases on the sub-tropical island, which host two thirds of the 47,000 US troops stationed in Japan. The row threatened to damage already tense relations between islanders and US troops just two weeks before US President Bill Clinton was scheduled to visit for a July 21-23 Group of Eight summit. The 19-year-old US marine was arrested after allegedly sneaking into an unlocked apartment in Okinawa City and molesting the local junior high school girl early Monday, police said. The girl's mother called the police as she saw the marine getting on top of her, police said. The marine, whose name was withheld because of his age, denied the charges. "We can never accept such a crime happening in spite of the stern protests we had previously lodged against crimes committed by US military personnel," the 48-member assembly said in an unanimously adopted resolution. The island erupted in fury in 1995 after the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by three US servicemen, leading to a US promise to reduce the heavy concentration of US forces there. A similar scale of protest is unlikely this time. The Okinawa protest resolution was sent to US Ambassador Thomas Foley and local US military chiefs including Lieutenant General Earl Hailston, chief of US forces in Okinawa. "I want to express to the family involved, as well as to the people of Okinawa, my sincerest apology and most profound regret for the incident and for the anxiety it has created," Hailston said in a statement. He promised to reinforce discipline. The assembly's resolution noted 22 crimes committed by US military personnel this year, compared with 14 last year. "I feel strong anger because this kind of cruel crime occurred despite repeated protests by the Okinawan people since the 1995 rape," Okinawa City mayor Masakazu Nakasone said in a protest letter to the US forces. But after meeting Hailston and local US marine chiefs at the US marine headquarters in Okinawa, he told reporters that "the summit and the incident are totally separate." "I will not raise this incident if I ever have the chance to meet the president," he said. Labor union members demonstrated outside the main gate of the marine headquarters, chanting, "Down with the indecent assault" and "Remove the bases," according to press reports. "We are angry because this kind of crime occurred when police are excessively reinforcing security ahead of the summit," said Yoshikazu Nakasone, head of the Okinawa Peace Action Centre. But the protests were unlikely to grow to the size of those in 1995, said Nakasone, whose group organised the rally. The Okinawa Peace Action Centre aims to encircle the Kadena US air base in Okinawa with 25,000 people on July 20 in a protest against the US military presence timed for the eve of the summit. The US military has been in Okinawa since fierce battles in the closing days of World War II and it directly ruled the island until 1972 when the territory was handed back to Japan. FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Corporate Watch in Japanese is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability, human rights, economic democracy and social justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. ------------------------------------- Corporate Watch in Japanese Transnational Resource and Action Center (TRAC) P.O. Box 29344 San Francisco, CA 94129 USA Tel: 1-415-561-6472 Fax: 1-415-561-6493 Email: cwj@corpwatch.org URL: http://www.corpwatch-jp.org ------------------------------------- ______________________ The Corporate Watch in Japanese http://www.corpwatch.org/japan (CWJ) mailing list is a moderated email list in English designed to connect activists campaigning against Japanese corporations and investments around the world. * To unsubscribe from the CWJ mailing list, send an email to majordomo@jca.apc.org with text "unsubscribe cwj". To subscribe to the CWJ mailing list, send a message to majordomo@jca.apc.org with the text "subscribe cwj" * The CWJ mailing list is NOT intended for wide distribution. If you would like to post messages from this list somewhere else, we ask that you first contact us at cwj@corpwatch.org ______________________