SDF conspired with police to arrest citizens’ group members

   Akahata has obtained a Self-Defense Forces internal document indicating that it conspired with the police to arrest citizens’ group members who were distributing flyers at an SDF personnel apartment complex in Tokyo’s Tachikawa City.

   The document titled, “The arrest of ‘Tachikawa SDF Monitoring Tent Village’ members,” was produced by the Ground SDF east region intelligence security unit. It recorded communications made between the SDF unit and the Tachikawa Police Station prior to the arrest.

   A person familiar with activities of the SDF intelligence security unit said that the SDF was to silence citizens’ groups.

   In February 2004, three “Tent Village” members were arrested on suspicion of trespassing on the SDF housing complex when inserting flyers into mailboxes in opposition to the deployment of the SDF to Iraq.

   According to the 17-page document, the Tachikawa Police Station on December 17, 2003, two months before the arrest, requested the SDF for its cooperation in arresting group members on the spot. It asked the SDF to call the police when SDF personnel spotted activists distributing flyers and to report to the police that they had been bothered by the flyer distributors.

   The document showed that on December 24, eight officers of the Tachikawa Police Station conducted an investigation on the SDF apartment buildings while the SDF unit members were attending. They examined the streets around the area, fences, mailboxes, and stairs, indicating that it was an on-site investigation in preparation for the arrest.

   It stated that an SDF official living in one of the apartments saw citizens’ group members distributing fliers on January 17, 2004, and that the Police station requested the SDF unit to have the official submit a report, join the on-site investigation, and help them identify those members while they were distributing flyers in front of JR Tachikawa Station.

   The document also contains detailed information on the group members, including photos, names, addresses, permanent domiciles, occupations, and positions in the group, indicating that the SDF intelligence security unit had monitored the group for a long time.

   After the arrest, the three group members refused to talk and were detained and interrogated for two and half months. While the Tokyo District Court Hachioji Branch acquitted them, the Tokyo High Court reversed the lower court ruling and ordered them to pay a fine of 100,000 to 200,000 yen. The case is pending in the Supreme Court.

   The SDF’s activities of monitoring and collecting information on citizens’ activities have already been revealed by other internal documents obtained by the Japanese Communist Party.                                                 - Akahata, October 12, 2007