No safety without national sovereignty -- Akahata editorial, April 6In Japan-U.S. talks on procedures for criminal trials, held under the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), the Koizumi Cabinet accepted the U.S. demand that a U.S. military command representative be allowed to attend questionings of U.S. suspects in criminal investigations. It did not demand that the SOFA be revised in order to require the U.S. forces to turn U.S. suspects over to Japanese investigators before their indictments.
Under this agreement, the handover of suspects continues to depend on U.S. "sympathetic considerations".
A major adverse change
Japan and the United States neither ended nor corrected the extra-territorial rights under which Japan is unable to hold U.S. suspects in custody for interrogation, even if their criminal acts have caused injuries to Japanese people.
What is worse, as a result of the talks, a foreign military representative will be allowed to intervene in Japanese criminal investigations. This has no precedent in Japan's judicial history.
The SOFA talks at this time were necessary because the absurdity of the SOFA's Article 17 Clause 5(c) is clear to everyone in that it provides that the U.S. suspects will be in the custody of the U.S. forces even though Japan has jurisdiction over the case. Faced with increasing calls for the SOFA to be revised, the Japanese and U.S. governments had to do something to improve applications of the SOFA.
The Japanese government is trying to convince the public that "sympathetic considerations" toward U.S. forces will be given not only to murder or rape suspects but also to suspects in other kinds of crimes. However, the agreed document makes no such statement.
The Japanese government claims that the United States will not rule out any kind of crime in considering Japanese requests, but the United States is said to have only orally agreed to do so. The fact remains that the United States can decide whether suspects should be handed over to Japan or not.
The SOFA contains such a clause because the U.S. wanted to give U.S. criminal suspects the advantage.
In the 1995 gang rape of a young girl by U.S. marines, the Japanese police with arrest warrants were unable to arrest the suspects for 26 days because the U.S. forces refused to hand them over under the shield of the SOFA.
Both in the series of arson attacks in January 2001 and in the attempted rape of a woman in November 2002, the U.S. forces refused to hand over the suspects.
There have been cases in which U.S. suspects who still in the custody of the U.S. military are allowed to concoct a story in their defense, and some fly to the U.S. Consequently, U.S. soldiers' crimes in Japan are increasing rapidly. Residents near U.S. bases are constantly worried about the possibility of crimes.
Any constitutional state has the right to question suspects and bring them to trial in order to protect the public from crimes.
Turning back on the call for the SOFA to be revised, the Koizumi Cabinet promised the U.S. to allow the U.S. military to intervene in the process of Japan's criminal investigation, which is tantamount to an adverse revision of the SOFA. Some Okinawan investigators are anxious if investigations will be able to proceed smoothly if the U.S. forces' representatives accompany the suspects.
Such a decision was apparently prompted by the U.S. intention to defend U.S. military personnel deployed overseas and ensure that they can wage war in any part of the world unhindered. We must not overlook the fact that the Koizumi Cabinet is just following U.S. policy dictates.
At stake is Japan's sovereignty and people's rights
This is a matter that affects our national sovereignty and the rights and security of the Japanese people.
The SOFA's amendment is a national demand as indicated by the fact that 28 prefectural assemblies as well as the Diet have adopted resolutions calling for a SOFA revision.
So long as Japan continues to allow its sovereignty to be trampled upon by an arrogant foreign military, the Japanese people can not participate in decisions that affect their basic national course and defend their security.
Japan must no longer continue to be bound by the SOFA.
The JCP will make efforts to get the SOFA completely revised by joining hands with the large number of groups calling for an equal relationship with the U.S. (end)