Government must urge U.S. to end anti-humanitarian acts: JCP Akamine

Foreign Minister Kawaguchi Yoriko has stated that the torture and ill-treatment of Iraqi prisoners of war by U.S. military personnel could have violated the 1949 Geneva Conventions relative to the treatment of prisoners of war.

She said this in reply to Japanese Communist Party representative Akamine Seiken at the May 10 meeting of the House of Representatives Special Committee on the contingency-related bills.

Akamine demanded that the government retract its repeated statement that "the U.S. forces are acting in accordance with international humanitarian law" and convey its criticism to the U.S. government.

Maintaining that the U.S. is always siding with international law, Kawaguchi spoke in defense of the U.S. actions.

Recalling that many U.S. atrocities in Okinawa under its occupation had been left unpunished, Akamine warned that such a weak-kneed attitude of the government condones U.S. atrocities, whether in Okinawa or Iraq. (end)