JCP Shii: Block wartime legislation and let the world return to U.N. peace principles

In his speech at the Constitution Day rally on May 3 in Tokyo, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo stressed the importance of the struggle to reestablish the rules for peace following the Iraq war and foil the Japanese government's plan to enact the wartime bills.

On Iraq war

Shii said that the United States has no right to assert that the war liberated Iraq despite U.S. President George W. Bush's declaration of victory. He said that the task now is for the international community to refuse to endorse the lawless U.S. war as well as the U.S. occupation.

Shii called attention to the fact that in no time in the past had the United Nations ever exerted its power and ability to prevent the outbreak of war, citing U.N. rejection in October 2002 of the U.S.-British draft resolution on the use of force and its rejection in February 2003 of another U.S. British draft proposal to cut short U.N. inspections and start war.

Noting that the U.N. Security Council for about six months prevented the war from breaking out, Shii pointed out that the U.N. demonstrated its ability and power backed by tens of millions of people's struggle to defend peace based on the U.N. Charter.

"The struggle against the war on Iraq has elevated the struggle to defend the U.N. Charter onto a new stage. Let us have confidence in this and do everything we can to reestablish the U.N. principles of peace.

On Wartime legislation

Shii pointed out that the real aim of the contingency bills is to get the whole nation prepared to attack instead of defending the country from outside attack.

He said that the Diet discussions of the bills for over a year have revealed two major problems:

One is that the bills for the first time openly allow the Self-Defense Forces to use force abroad whenever SDF ships in the high seas are attacked or attacks are predicted.

Second is that the bills would allow the SDF to take part in U.S. wars that involve preemptive wars. Defense Agency Director General Ishiba Shigeru acknowledged that the wartime legislation would be invoked in the event of U.S. preemptive attacks in Asia and the Pacific region.

Finally, Shii said that the struggle against the wartime legislation is a struggle to defend Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution and world peace based on the U.N. principles of peace.

On the North Korea question, Shii said that the issue of North Korea's nuclear weapons and other questions should be resolved peacefully through diplomacy. He said that it is wrong to enact wartime legislation by using the North Korea question as a pretext to achieve the warlike aims of party politics. (end)