Lawyer calls for opposition to wartime legislation

A lawyer who is active in the democratic movement says it is important in the present simultaneous local election campaign to talk more about the need to block the contingency legislation in addition to opposing the Iraq war.

Matsui Shigeaki of the Japan Lawyers Association for Freedom made this appeal in an article printed in the April 1st issue of Akahata.

Noting that the governing parties are geared up for the bills' passage through the Lower House in mid-April, he emphasized the need now is to use the simultaneous local election campaign to help increase the struggle against the wartime legislation.

He said that the U.S. preemptive attack on Iraq, without a U.N. Security Council resolution, shows the danger that a Korean war may break out with a similar U.S. preemptive attack in response to emergencies defined by the contingency legislation.

The three government parties are planning to introduce amended contingency bills to the Diet, but such bills that would be used for such an illegitimate war must be thwarted, Matsui stressed. (end)