From:  "miho cs" <miho3578@wanadoo.fr>
Date:  2004年4月10日(土)   午前4時44分
Subject:  Re: [noduproject] appeal (checked version)

フランスの美帆シボです。

下記の声明を「フランス平和運動」本部と全国の支部に仏語の説明を付けて送りました。
また、首相、外務大臣、防衛長官のメール・アドレスも記して、メッセージを送るようにお願いしました。フランスの平和団体はイラクとの交流がありますから、アピール文のアラブ語訳もお願いしています。

昨日、友人やマスコミ関係者に送ったメールに次々返答があり、皆さん、それぞれ行動しています。職場、知り合いのマスコミ関係者、大学関係など呼びかけと情報を広め、署名運動も盛んになっています。

今日の夜八時のテレビで三人の目隠しした姿が放映されました。ただし、彼らについて詳しい報道はありませんでした。その代わり、小泉首相が自衛隊撤兵を拒否するシーンはしっかり見せ付けられました。日本の国民の反応はまだ伝えられていません。

-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Rozoff [mailto:R_ROZOFF@YAHOO.COM]
Sent: Friday, April 09, 2004 8:27 PM
To: ANTINATO@topica.com
Subject: Re: Appeal for the Release of the three Japanese Taken Hostage in Iraq. [WWW.ST

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM
---------------------------
Dear Friend,
Thank you greatly for posting this and bringing this urgent matter to our attention.
Is there an actual appeal that can be signed, and if so at which Web address?
Appreciatively,
Rick



-----Original Message-----
From: JULIOGRACE [mailto:juliograce@ciudad.com.ar]
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2004 1:28 AM
To: yuu@hiroshima-cdas.or.jp; iraq-tribunal@lists.riseup.net; M.H.J. van den Berg (RISQ); du-watch@yahoogroups.com; du-list@yahoogroups.com; abolition-caucus@yahoogroups.com
Cc: translate-for-peace@yahoogroups.jp; Againstwar; staff@e-hanwa.org
Subject: Re: [abolition-caucus] Appeal for the Release of the three Japanese Taken Hostage in Iraq.

It is such a shame that innocent and well intentioned people such as these three who were on a Peace Mission against du (if this is truly the case and not members of the military).
Japan must withdraw its troops from Irak. Has Japan forgotten Hiroshima?
Does it want the same perverse action against other peoples?
Frankly, one looses faith in humanity when countries like Japan and Israel are showing the same lack of sensitivity for other people. Peace is peace and does not know frontiers, one cannot talk of peace while making war elsewhere. People of Japan wake up and work for real PEACE!!
Grace
日本は、ヒロシマを忘れてしまったのだろうか？
　「反劣化ウランなどの平和活動に取り組んでいる、罪もなく、善意に満ちた三人のような人たちが（拘束されたのは）きわめて残念です。（もし、平和活動に取り組んでいる人々であって、軍のメンバーではないというが本当であるのなら）
　日本は、イラクから兵隊を撤退させるべきです。日本は、ヒロシマを忘れてしまったのだろうか？日本は、自分たちが受けたのと同じような邪悪な行為を他の国の人々に与えたいというのだろうか？
　率直に言って、（悲惨な経験を経てきている）日本やイスラエルのような国が、（自分たちが受けたのと）同じ思いやりの欠如を示すのなら、ひとは人間性に対する信頼を失ってしまう。平和は平和であり、国境は関係ない??ひとは他のところで戦争に参加しながら平和を語ることはできない。
　日本のみなさん、目覚めてください、そして本当の「平和」のために行動してください！
　　グレイス（アルゼンチン？）」

Yes, I agree Japan should not sacrifice lives for a war that should not have happened. Japan should have never gone into  war just because Bush would have labled them "axis of evil."

Japan needs to step forward and an indpendent nation and tell Bush sorry sir, you got yourself into this for your own personal gain and the gain for your rich elite friends.

Imaka

Japan's plea: Don't kill the hostages
By Amal Hamdan 
Saturday 10 April 2004, 12:42 Makka Time, 9:42 GMT 

Imai's mother (R) pleaded with Tokyo to save her son

The people of Japan have been making heartfelt pleas to an Iraqi group that has captured three Japanese - please do not kill your hostages.

The appeals have come in the form of faxes and emails that flooded Aljazeera website after the airing on Aljazeera television of a videotape showing Japanese hostages captured in Iraq.

 On Thursday the television aired a chilling, soundless tape showing the three hostages sitting at the feet of heavily armed kidnappers. A previously unknown group called Sayara al-Mujahidiin said it would "burn them alive" if Tokyo did not withdraw its troops from Iraq.

The Japanese messages pointed out that the hostages - Noriaki Imai, Nahoko Takato and Soichiro Koriyama - were in Iraq for humanitarian purposes and had strongly opposed the US war on Iraq and deployment of Japanese forces. 

Fukushima Mizuho, the leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party, in a fax said the hostages "love　Iraq and Iraqi people". She called for their immediate release.

Distress
The Pacific Asia Resource Centre, a Japanese non-government organisation, also sent an appeal to the hostages-takers saying they opposed the occupation of Iraq.

Hundreds gathered outside the official residence of PM Koizumi  

"We want you to know that very large numbers of Japanese people have been strongly opposing the presence of Japanese military forces in your country. However, please remember killing the three innocent Japanese you are now holding hostage will not solve the problem. Instead, it will only create hatred towards your country by our people.

Please be patient and give us more time to convince our government to withdraw from Iraq."

Ueda Furnio, the mayor of Sapporo city where activist Imai comes from, also urged the captors to release all the hostages.

"(Imai) entered Iraq to study on his own the effects of nuclear pollution and depleted uranium shells hoping that he would contribute to peace and stability in Iraq someday. He is a peace-loving young person with strong ambitions," wrote Furnio.

"There is no reason for them to be involved in such a tragic case as this despicable act of violence."

Nahoko Takato was working with　street children in Iraq

Other Japanese also expressed similar distress over the incident. "I understand the anger of the Iraqi people towards our government, which is working as a war dog for the US aggression. But why must a peace activist Imai be punished in place of the prime minister Koizumi and other hawkish sycophants?," wrote Yukiko Maruta.

"These three people are working on aid workers [sic] and a journalist. They went to Iraq not to fight against Iraqi people, destroy Iraq, but they would like to help the people. I do not understand why they have to accept this fate, at all. Please air the news that they are not fighters but aid workers. I can not let them die."

Families' anguish

Meanwhile, families of the hostages gathered in Tokyo on Friday to plead for the government to do whatever it takes to bring them safely home, including withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Looking pale and tense, relatives of the three met Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi.

One young man held Buddhist rosary beads tightly. Others clutched handkerchiefs.

"I can't bear the thought that my child might be burned alive," Koriyama's mother, Kimiko, was quoted by Kyodo news agency as telling a news conference.

"I believe that mothers over there (in Iraq) know best how it feels to lose one's child in war. I hope the Iraqi people too will hear our plea."

Anxious days

Video footage showed the hostages with knives at their throats, although this was not aired in Japan. Takato could be heard screaming as she covered her face.

Soichiro Koriyama is a former　soldier turned photojournalist

Imai's father, Takashi, told the same news conference that they had called on Kawaguchi to consider withdrawing the troops.

"But the foreign minister only said she would pass this on, which was a great pity."

The families also said they wanted to meet Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to make their appeal directly.

Asked in parliament if he would meet them, Koizumi said: "At the moment, the foreign ministry is handling this."

For the families it was an anxious day.

"We shouldn't have let him go," Naoko Imai was quoted by the Asahi Shimbun daily as saying of her son.

Hostages' background

Imai, 18, graduated from high school last month. He is a member of the Campaign to Abolish Depleted Uranium and travelled to Iraq on 1 April to study the effects of depleted uranium on Iraqi children, according to the Citizens’ Network for DU Abolition. Imai was planning to write a book documenting the stories of victims of depleted uranium. "Mr Imai has been deeply saddened by the fact that many innocent Iraqi children have been suffering from cancer and leukaemia," wrote the organisation in a fax.

Takato, 34, is also an aid worker and peace activist. She travelled to Iraq in April 2003, after US and British tanks entered Baghdad, wrote her friend Tomoatsu Kayano. She spent months there helping hungry street children and drug addicts. Takato also delivered food to hospitals, pencils and notebooks to schools and assisted in the reconstruction of a school. This was her third trip to Iraq.

Freelance photojournalist Koriyama, 32, is a former soldier turned freelance photojournalist. Last May, Koriyami provided the Weekly Asahi magazine, published by the mass-circulation Asahi Shimbun, with pictures of Baghdad after the city fell.

Aljazeera (with agency additions)

If you want to call on the Japanese government to free the peace activists by withdrawal of the troops, you can use these email adresses or fax addresses.
An example to use from Japanese NGO's is attached below. 
Japanese Prime Minister:
FAX: +81-3-3581-3883
koizumi@mmz.kantei.go.jp
Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
FAX: +81-3-5501-8430
goiken@mofa.go.jp

Japanese Defence Agency
FAX: +81-3-3502-5174
info-iraq@jda.go.jp or info@jda.go.jp

（フランスから）　緊急声明２
24時間以内に拉致された方々が解放されるだろうというニュースで私たちは安心してはいけない。
私たちの闘いはこれからである。イラクの無辜の市民たちが虫けら同然に殺戮されている状況の中で、彼らが解放されうるとしたら、ひとえに，彼ら自身のイラク市民たちに対する並々ならない救援への信念であり，それを知らしめようとした多くの市民のネットワークの賜物である。日本政府川口外相が＜彼らがイラク人の友人だ＞などという資格はない。あのような表明こそ、イラク民衆を敵に回しているのである。卑劣な無差別爆撃をおかしているアメリカはテロリスト以下である。それに寄り添ってアメリカの占領政策を支援している日本は、自衛隊を派兵し、輸送などの肩代わりをしている。人道援助とは隠れ蓑にすぎない。そのことを私たちは認識して、イラク人一人一人が命が十全に尊重されない限り、一刻も早くこの大義のない戦争と占領をやめさせる努力をしない限り、第二、第三の人質事件がこれからいくらでも起こりうる。少なくとも、自衛隊撤退が実現できない限り、私たちにほっとする余裕はない。私たちはあらゆる努力を傾けて、これを実現させよう。

グローバル・ウォッチ／パリ
コリン・コバヤシ


アルジャジーラ解放の記事とのこと、転載します。

Ayse and other comrades..

Here is a message from the American peace activist and author, Phyllis Bennis, bearing good news that you have probably already heard, but just in case:

I left messages with Jazeera, but hadn't heard back from them.
In the meantime --

Also Saturday, the kidnappers of three Japanese taken hostage in Iraq said they will release them within 24 hours, the Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera reported.

The kidnappers of the Japanese, identifying themselves as the ``Muhahedeen Squadron,'' said they made the decision after mediation by the Islamic Clerics Committee, an Iraqi Sunni Muslim organization, Al-Jazeera reported.

In a statement, the kidnappers urged the Japanese public to press their government to withdraw its troops from Iraq, the station said.

Videotape delivered to Al-Jazeera, as well as Associated Press Television News, on Thursday showed the three Japanese - two aid workers and a journalist - blindfolded and threatened by masked men with guns and knives.

The kidnappers threatened to burn the hostages alive if Japan did not promise within three days to pull its troops out of Iraq.


a small piece of good news.
p
----- Original Message -----

 
4月9日付：

日本政府首相　小泉純一郎
防衛庁長官　石破茂　様

米軍によるイラク民衆の国家占領に反対する一人のアメリカ人として、アメリカの蛮行を補填している日本の軍隊の即時撤退を求めます。

本日、シカゴをはじめ、米国内の都市で米軍によるイラク占領を終わらせること、すべての米軍のイラクからの撤退を求める街頭マーチが行われます。

日本の人びと、とりわけイラクの抵抗勢力によって拘束された人びとが、戦犯ジョージ・W.ブッシュの帝国主義的野心のために代償を支払わされるようなことがあってはなりません。

もし、「独立した」イラクが、日本からの支援を望むときは、日本の民衆と政府が惜しみない対応をするということを確信しています。

Bob Schwartz
（シカゴ　反戦・反人種差別連盟メンバー）