Stop war and pull out troops: JCP Shii

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on a TV Asahi satellite broadcast program on April 1 expressed his view on the present state of the Iraq war.

Shii said that given the lawlessness and inhumanity of the war of aggression against Iraq, the task now is for the United States and Britain to stop the war and pull out from Iraq without delay.

Referring to the role that the Japanese government should take, Shii said, "The government should stop supporting the illegal war and call for the war to be stopped and the aggression forces to be withdrawn. That's it."

"How hypocritical it is for the government of the country with its war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution to offer financial assistance to post-war reconstruction while regarding the war of aggression as legitimate!" Shii said.

Asked to comment on implications the Iraq war has for the North Korea question, Shii said, "Supporting the illegal war on Iraq will set a bad precedent when Japan seeks a peaceful solution to the Korean Peninsula question."

Refuting the argument that Japan should support the Iraq war because the Japan-U.S. military alliance is crucial to Japan, Shii said, "Military alliance treaties do not justify violation of the United Nations Charter."

Citing the opposition to the war expressed by Germany, France, and Canada, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members, Shii stated, "If the military alliance with the United States is forcing Japan into supporting and helping illegal wars, Japan must have second thoughts on continuing such a military alliance."

On the recent moves taking advantage of the Iraq war to rush to enact wartime bills, Shii said that the JCP will never allow the wartime bills to be enacted by taking advantage of the confusion. (end)