- (AFP) -- US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld received
a blunt request to downscale US bases in Okinawa during talks with the
chief of the southern Japanese island.
-
- Several hundred demonstrators staged rallies near US
bases in protest at Rumsfeld's first visit to the strategically important
island since he was appointed the US defense chief.
-
- Okinawa governor Keiishi Inamine handed a petition calling
for the reduction of US bases in Okinawa to Rumsfeld, who later flew to
South Korea as he concluded a three-day visit to Japan.
-
- "We understand that the US bases in Japan play a
crucial role within the framework of the bilateral security alliance to
maintain peace and security in the Far East and Japan," Inamine said
in a statement.
-
- "However, it is also the fact that Okinawa prefecture
still faces the immense and dense US facilities after 58 years since the
end of World War II," Inamine said.
-
- "People of Okinawa, who have been shouldering the
excessive burden of US bases over long years, have been firmly calling
for resolution of base-related issues," Inamine said.
-
- Rumsfeld, who sat next to the governor as he detailed
Okinawa's grievances, responded: "US commanders here and throughout
the world try to assure that they can minimize their impact on the local
community."
-
- He said the United States was in the process of reviewing
its military posture around the world, but had no specifics on how that
might affect the 28,000 US troops on strategically important Okinawa.
-
- US forces here, which account for the bulk of the 47,000
US troops in Japan, include more than 17,000 Marines poised to reinforce
US forces in South Korea.
-
- The US presence in Okinawa has aroused bitter opposition
on the island since the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl by three
US Marines.
-
- "I am here in Okinawa as I indicated earlier to
listen to learn to see first-hand what the situation is," Rumsfeld
said.
-
- Inamine's seven-point petition called for further reductions
of US facilities and forces, the relocation of marine training and exercises,
a "fundamental review" of the legal status of US soldiers and
the prevention of incidents and accidents associated with military activities.
-
- It also urges the banning of the navy's use of new low
frequency sonar in Japanese waters to protect marine mammals and urges
measures to prevent aircraft noise.
-
- "Certainly, the United States will continue to act
within the law and conduct our operations with regards to the rights of
Japan and other nations within their exclusive economic zones," he
said.
-
- Rumsfeld toured US military facilities on the island
by helicopter and met with US troops.
-
- Some 300 demonstrators rallied outside Camp Foster in
the southern part of the island, yelling in chorus: "We protest the
author of the war. We oppose dispatch of (Japan's) Self-Defence Forces."
-
- US Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker, accompanying Rumsfeld
in Okinawa, said at the Marine base that Japan is still expected to send
troops to Iraq this year despite its recent cautiousness over the deployment.
-
- "I think bottom line is the Japanese will still
send a group of Self-Defence Forces to Iraq and probably still this year,"
he said.
-
- During a joint news conference with Rumsfeld in Tokyo
on Saturday, Japanese Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba said Japan remained
committed to aiding with the reconstruction of Iraq. Ishiba, however, wouldn't
be drawn on when.
-
-
-
- Copyright © 2002 AFP. All rights reserved. All information
displayed in this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected
by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence
you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any
way commercially exploit any of the contents of this section without the
prior written consent of Agence France-Presses.
|
