iraq11

Prime minister's dangerously provocative remarks -- Akahata 'Current' column, April 14

Takato Shuji, brother of Takato Nahoko who is held hostage in Iraq, looked very tired when he said, "I saw my sister held at gunpoint." He said, "What we want to do is to talk with the prime minister.

The families' anxieties will be somewhat lessened if Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro receives them. But the prime minister continues to decline to do so, saying "I have nothing to say to them."

The government is thus putting the families into a corner, as if it's pointing a gun at them. His talks with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney were appalling. Referring to the prime minister's refusal to withdraw the Self-Defense Forces from Iraq, Cheney said, "Japan's policy on Iraq is on the right course and we appreciate it." The Japanese prime minister said, "I believe in the U.S. great cause and continued goodwill."

It was like a conversation aimed at provoking the armed hostage-takers in Iraq. What the prime minister stated is tantamount to lauding and even encouraging the U.S. forces that have launched criminal attacks against Fallujiah. It could create an adversarial relationship with the Iraqi people who seek to achieve independence and expose the hostages to a greater danger.

Fallujah is now a symbol of tragedy in the Iraq War, like Guernica in Spain's Civil War and My Lai in the Vietnam War. U.S. forces have killed more than 600 people, including 300 women and children.

Japan's government may have become another symbol of the Iraq War by deploying troops in support of the U.S. forces in defiance of the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution. It now stands for a strongly pro-U.S. position.

How disgusting it is to see the government going so far as to begin finding fault with the three people in taking the risk of going to a dangerous country like Iraq! If the government truly seeks to extend "humanitarian assistance" to Iraq, it should do all it can to rescue them with the due respect they deserve. The Japanese government completely lacks common sense, as if it is obsessed by the madness of the U.S. military policy in Fallujah. (end)

HOME