Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2015 January 28 - February 3 [WORLD]

Global community should unite to isolate terrorist groups

Akahata editorial

The extremist group Islamic State posted a video on the Internet early in the morning of February 1 purporting to have killed Japanese journalist Goto Kenji who was held by the group. Goto’s killing follows the January 24 murder of Yukawa Haruna who was also taken hostage by them. Such inhumane acts should never be allowed.

Islamic State repeating atrocities

As Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo noted in his statement on February 1, the international community needs to unite to stop the Islamic State’s heinous acts and drive it into disunity and breakup.

The militant group is ruling the areas from northern Iraq to Syria based on an extremely perverse interpretation of Islam. When the Islamic State determines residents to be hostile forces, it tortures and “executes” them without hesitation even if they are Sunnites. Even al-Qaeda, the extremist group’s parent organization, cut off all ties with the group last year due to its terrible cruelties.

The Islamic State is oppressing non-Muslim ethnic minorities as well. Declaring a “revival of slavery” last October, the group kidnaped many Yazidi women and children in northern Iraq and gave them to its combatants as “rewards”. These brutal acts are far from the Islamic faith.

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2170 in August last year. The resolution condemns the Islamic State’s “widespread or systematic attacks” on civilians as “a crime against humanity”. In a bid to disarm and disband the organization, it calls on all member states to increase united efforts to prevent the group from recruiting foreign terrorist fighters as well as from obtaining weapons and financial support.

In dealing with these acts of terrorism, it is essential to fully comply with the UN Charter, international law, and international humanitarian law.

Military invasions in breach of international law have been repeated: the U.S. Bush administration launched the Afghan War (October 2001) under the name of a war against terrorism and invaded Iraq (March 2003), NATO carried out airstrikes on Libya (2011), and the Obama administration stepped up the use of drones to kill suspected terrorists.

Western countries tried to impose their interpretation of democracy on these countries, but none of their attempts achieved a successful outcome. They prolonged wars and civil wars, intensified conflicts between religious sects, and fueled hatred toward European nations and America. The situation has been used as justification for terrorism and has nurtured extremist groups. It is no coincidence that the Islamic State has extended its influence in northern Iraq.

In addition to a fair solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, removal of the root cause of terrorism, such as poverty, inequality, and discrimination, is essential.

Gov’t move to make a war-fighting Japan is unacceptable

Using the pretext of the Japanese hostage crisis, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has exhibited an aggressive attitude in pushing to enact legislation to allow the Japanese Self-Defense Forces to go abroad to “rescue” Japanese nationals. What the Japanese government should do now instead is to calmly review its handling of the hostage crisis. The Japanese government should refrain from accelerating its move to turn Japan into a nation fighting wars abroad under the name of anti-terrorism measures.