Prime minister must tell the U.S. not to use cluster bombs: JCP

The Japanese Communist Party in the House of Councilors called on Prime
Minister Koizumi to demand that the United States stop using cluster bombs
against Afghanistan.

At an Upper House Budget Committee meeting on November 14, JCP Koike
Akira said the use of the sinister weapon that indiscriminately kills
children and civilians conflicts with Japan's support for a ban on
anti-personnel land mines.

Koike was referring to the fact that Japan in a conference of parties to
the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and
Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their Destruction in September
called for united efforts to implement the treaty.

Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro said that the United States is careful
about not injuring civilians, and that prohibition of such weapons is no
guarantee for an end to terrorism.

Koike in reply said, "How pitiful it is for a prime minister of Japan
with its anti-war constitutional principles to be unable to urge the United
States to stop using cluster bombs. (end)