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From: INTERNET:chongga at juno.com
Dear friends,
The G8 Summit Meeting is going to be held in Okinawa, 21-23 July, 2000. As you may be already aware, Okinawa is made a stronghold of U.S. military strategy with huge military bases.
Utilizing this opportunity of G8 Summit, our committee is going to globally disseminate the reality of Okinawa almost occupied by U.S. military forces and suffering from burden of huge U.S. bases. At the same time, we would like to call upon all peace movements and peace-loving people of the world to express and to strengthen solidarity with the movements of Okinawan people and to pressurize Japan and U.S. government for the reduction and withdrawal of these bases.
Here we enclosed an appeal to which we would like to get your support (with signature). We are going to make public, before the opening of the G8 Summit Meeting, this international appeal with a number of signatures.
If you agree with the spirits and contents of the appeal, please send us your signature or notice of support by fax (+81-3-3451-6277) or e-mail (LPA01156 at nifty.ne.jp / ic3t-kwt at asahi-net.or.jp).
We need :
1) your full name 2) name of your organization (if you can represent) & your function 3) message or comments (if you have)
Please circulate and disseminate this Appeal to your members, partners, and friends as wide as possible in order to get the broadest support.
Thank you for your solidarity and cooperation.
Yours in peace.
Hiroshi Suda General Secretary Japan Peace Committee
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International Appeal on the U.S. Bases in Okinawa on the occasion of the G8 Summit Meeting /Okinawa, Japan, 21-22 July, 2000/
We would like to draw your attention to the fact that coming G8 Summit Meeting (21-23 July) will be held in Okinawa. This small group of islands, like a colony, are burdened with U.S. military bases, as has never seen in other territory of sovereign states in the world.
There are huge U.S. bases in Okinawa which occupies more than 10% of the whole territory (20% of the main island). These bases were built in violation of international law.
The US Military forces, occupying Okinawa in the Second World War, built their bases by force, sending surviving citizens to concentration camps and taking their land without payment. It was a clear violation of The Hague Convention that prohibits the confiscation of private property even during war, and that obliges to pay for their property requisitioned even in the case of military necessity.
Further more, since 1953, bulldozing houses and burning them, the U.S. Forces had outrageously promoted more large scale of requisition of the lands than it was just after the end of WWII. Thus huge U.S. military bases were built as we see now.
Today these bases are the root cause of the violation of human rights and security of Okinawan people.
According to the statistics of Japanese Government as well as of Okinawa prefecture, a number of crimes committed by U.S. soldiers for these 30 years has reached around 5,000, and more than 10% of them are violent crimes such as murder, burglaries, and rapes. However neither Japan's domestic laws nor U.S. laws are applied to the U.S. Forces in Japan, and in fact U.S. soldiers committing crimes are protected by prerogatives. Those who are disturbed by the noise pollution by U.S. bases reaches 37% of whole Okinawa's population. The crashes and the burning of military airplanes take place so often.
It is clear that above mentioned situation infringes a norm of international community envisaged in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person" (Article 3).
At the same time, it is quite serious that these bases constitute a threat to peace of Asia and of the world.
Okinawa is the only place in the world where the U.S. deploys Marine Corps outside its territory. The Marine Corps situated in front of Korean Peninsular and China are forces with a task of advance attack to other nations. Thus Okinawa is made an important stronghold of the U.S. Forces in Asia and the Pacific.
Moreover the US administration is reinforcing its military bases in Okinawa based on the military strategy of preemptive attack and of interference, as it plans to build a modern base on the beautiful seashore of Nago City, a venue of the G8 Summit Meeting.
It is obvious that such a situation infringes principles of the United Nations such as peaceful solution of conflicts, respect to sovereignty, non-interference into internal affairs, and so on, and that it goes against the current of peace in Asia and the world.
The nations of G8 declared that they share common "value" of democracy, human rights, and peace. Okinawa where they are coming together is nothing but a spot where these values are violently trampled upon. The last G8 Summit Meeting in the 20th century being held in Okinawa, both governments of Japan and the United States should immediately start actions for the reduction and removal of U.S. bases in order to normalize the situation in Okinawa.
Okinawan people has been fighting against the burden of U.S. military bases and for the release from it. It is high time, on the eve of the 21st century, that their demand should be immediately realized. We support the demands of Okinawan people and express our cordial solidarity to them.
July 2000
We, undersigned, support this appeal:
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