Japan's plea: Don't kill the hostages
by Amal Hamdan
Friday 09 April 2004 11:59 AM GMT
The people of Japan have been making heartfelt pleas to an
Iraqi group that has captured three Japanese - please do not kill
your hostages.
The appeals have come in the form of faxes and emails that flooded
the Aljazeera website following the airing on Aljazeera television
of a videotape showing Japanese hostages captured in Iraq.
On Thursday the television aired a chilling, soundless tape showing
the three hostages sitting at the feet of heavily armed kidnappers.
A previously unknown group called Sayara al-Mujahadin said it would
"burn them alive" if Tokyo does not withdraw its troops from
Iraq.
The Japanese messages pointed out that the hostages - Noriaki Imai,
Nahoko Takato and Soichiro Koriyama - were in Iraq for humanitarian
purposes and had strongly opposed the US war on Iraq and deployment
of Japanese forces.
Fukushima Mizuho, the leader of the opposition Social Democratic
Party, in a fax said the hostages "love Iraq and Iraqi people". She
called for their immediate release.
Distress
The Pacific Asia Resource Centre, a Japanese non-government
organisation, also sent an appeal to the hostages-takers saying
they opposed the occupation of Iraq.
"We want you to know that very large numbers of Japanese people
have been strongly opposing the presence of Japanese military
forces in your country. However, please remember killing the three
innocent Japanese you are now holding hostage will not solve the
problem. Instead, it will only create hatred towards your country
by our people.
Please be patient and give us more time to convince our government
to withdraw from Iraq."
Ueda Furnio, the mayor of Sapporo city where activist Imai comes
from, also urged the captors to release all the hostages.
"(Imai) entered Iraq to study on his own the effects of nuclear
pollution and depleted uranium shells hoping that he would
contribute to peace and stability in Iraq someday. He is a
peace-loving young person with strong ambitions," wrote
Furnio.
"There is no reason for them to be involved in such a tragic case
as this despicable act of violence."
Other Japanese also expressed similar distress over the incident.
"I understand the anger of the Iraqi people towards our government,
which is working as a war dog for the US aggression. But why must a
peace activist Imai be punished in place of the prime minister
Koizumi and other hawkish sycophants?," wrote Yukiko Maruta.
"These three people are working on aid workers [sic] and a
journalist. They went to Iraq not to fight against Iraqi people,
destroy Iraq, but they would like to help the people. I do not
understand why they have to accept this fate, at all. Please air
the news that they are not fighters but aid workers. I can not let
them die."
Families' anguish
Meanwhile, families of the hostages gathered in Tokyo on Friday to
plead for the government to do whatever it takes to bring them
safely home, including withdrawing troops from Iraq.
Looking pale and tense, relatives of the three met Foreign Minister
Yoriko Kawaguchi.
One young man held Buddhist rosary beads tightly. Others clutched
handkerchiefs.
"I can't bear the thought that my child might be burned alive,"
Koriyama's mother, Kimiko, was quoted by Kyodo news agency as
telling a news conference.
"I believe that mothers over there (in Iraq) know best how it feels
to lose one's child in war. I hope the Iraqi people too will hear
our plea."
Anxious days
Video footage showed the hostages with knives at their throats,
although this was not aired in Japan. Takato could be heard
screaming as she covered her face.
Imai's father, Takashi, told the same news conference that they had
called on Kawaguchi to consider withdrawing the troops.
"But the foreign minister only said she would pass this on, which
was a great pity."
The families also said they wanted to meet with Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi to make their appeal directly.
Asked in parliament if he would meet them, though, Koizumi said:
"At the moment, the foreign ministry is handling this."
For the families it was an anxious day.
"We shouldn't have let him go," Naoko Imai was quoted by the Asahi
Shimbun daily as saying of her son.
Hostages' background
Imai, 18, graduated from high school last month. He is a member of
the Campaign to Abolish Depleted Uranium and travelled to Iraq on 1
April to study the effects of depleted uranium on Iraqi children,
according to the Citizens Network for DU Abolition. Imai was
planning to write a book documenting the stories of victims of
depleted uranium. "Mr Imai has been deeply saddened by the fact
that many innocent Iraqi children have been suffering from cancer
and leukaemia," wrote the organisation in a fax.
Takato, 34, is also an aid worker and peace activist. She travelled
to Iraq in April 2003, after US and British tanks entered Baghdad,
wrote her friend Tomoatsu Kayano. She spent months there helping
hungry street children and drug addicts. Takato also delivered food
to hospitals, pencils and notebooks to schools and assisted in the
reconstruction of a school. This was her third trip to Iraq.
Freelance photojournalist Koriyama, 32, is a former soldier turned
freelance photojournalist. Last May, Koriyami provided the Weekly
Asahi magazine, published by the mass-circulation Asahi Shimbun,
with pictures of Baghdad after the city fell.
Aljazeera (with agency additions)
Nahoko Takato was working with
street children in Iraq
