JCP Dietmembers give eyewitness report

Four Japanese Communist Party members who returned from a week-long visit to Pakistan, stressed that the on-going U.S.-led air strikes against Afghanistan are severely hampering all humanitarian assistance to Afghan refugees.

The JCP team comprising Ogata Yasuo (JCP House of Councilors member), Akamine Seiken (House of Representatives member), Koike Akira (House of Councilors member), and Kasai Akira (JCP International Bureau deputy director) held a meeting on November 8 in a Dietmembers' building.

The meeting, opened by Fudesaka Hideyo, JCP Diet Policy Commission chair, was attended by 125 people from 74 organizations, including trade unions and peace organizations.

Ogata Yasuo, who led the JCP team visiting Pakistan, said that the urgent need is to deliver food to Afghan refugees before winter comes and that U.N. agencies, NGOs, and the Pakistani government are unanimous in calling for an immediate halt to the war.

He said, "The war is the major stumbling block to humanitarian assistance to the refugees."

Listening to the eyewitness report, a university student said, "I am shocked to know that lives of ordinary people and even children are threatened. It is absolutely necessary to let many people know that the U.S. bombing is the obstacle to urgently needed NGO activities."

An All Japan Pensioners' Union member said, "We must develop our movement to push the U.S. into ending the strikes as soon as possible." (end)