NAHA — Okinawa Gov Keiichi Inamine strongly urged U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to reduce and realign U.S. bases and troops in Okinawa in a meeting Sunday but Rumsfeld failed to clearly respond to the issue.
"I'm not in the position to make any specific proposal. We are at the middle stage of our review," Rumsfeld said, referring to Inamine's request.
"But I assure you we've heard what you had to say, we've listened and we've learned," he said, visibly angered by the Okinawa governor's strongly worded request.
Rumsfeld visited Okinawa for the first time and was the first U.S. defense secretary to visit Japan's southernmost island prefecture in 13 years.
The visit was part of his weeklong trip to Japan and South Korea, his first since assuming the post in January 2001, with Iraq's postwar reconstruction and U.S. military realignments at the top of the agenda.
"What Okinawa demands has always been consolidation and reduction of U.S. bases," Inamine said in the half-hour meeting open to the media.
"People often ask why Okinawa people make a huge fuss at times of crimes and accidents involving U.S. service personnel, but I always say it is not only one case, but is part of a series of cases that have taken place over a long period of time," he said.
Rumsfeld responded, "I would add one another thing" as a positive aspect of the presence of U.S. bases in Okinawa. "That is during the decades of the U.S.-Japan security treaty, this part of the world has seen peace."
Okinawa accommodates 75% of U.S. bases in Japan and is regarded as a cornerstone of the U.S. military presence in the Pacific.
Inamine handed over a seven-point petition featuring more reductions in U.S. bases than in the ongoing process under a 1996 bilateral accord, cuts in Marines and other forces in the prefecture, and a thorough review of criminal procedures for U.S. personnel suspected of crimes.
"We think it is imperative that the process of consolidation advances constantly even one step at a time, in terms not only of areas of land occupied but also personnel and training frequency," he said.
After the meeting, Inamine admitted to local reporters that he was demanding and sometimes discourteous, but that he is satisfied about making the people's case heard on a rare occasion of a visit by a U.S. defense chief.
"We did not hear any comment about a possible reduction of bases in Okinawa but I hope that I had some impact as they actually saw bases and heard our strong desire," he said.
A few hundred people gathered in front of the U.S. Marines Camp Foster to protest the heavy U.S. military presence in Okinawa as well as the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Protests were also held around the prefectural government office.
In a press conference Saturday in Tokyo, Rumsfeld said Washington has developed some concepts and ideas on the global realignments and is about to start discussing them with other countries, without elaborating.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi stressed the importance of the Okinawa issue when he met with Rumsfeld on Friday. "Reducing the burden on Okinawa is a big issue for my cabinet," Koizumi said.
Rumsfeld also expressed hope that the two countries will resume discussions on a review of criminal procedures for U.S. military personnel suspected of crimes in Japan, but the two sides have agreed on no specific timetable.
Japan and the U.S. began discussing the issue after May, when a U.S. Marine in Okinawa was accused of rape, but failed in August to reach an agreement over U.S. demands for a U.S. official to be present during Japanese police interrogations.
Under the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement, the U.S. military is not required to hand over suspects until they are indicted. But the U.S. agreed to give "sympathetic consideration" to the handover issue in serious crimes, following the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl by three U.S. servicemen.
Regarding Iraq, Rumsfeld has refrained from pressing Japan to send its troops at an early date.
The Japanese government decided Thursday to review a plan to dispatch an SDF unit by the end of this year after Wednesday's fatal bombing attack on an Italian base in Nasiriyah, southern Iraq, near an area Tokyo had planned to send the troops.
Rumsfeld said earlier Sunday the U.S.-led coalition forces have no plans to begin pulling back from Iraq next June with the planned launch of an Iraqi transitional government.
"The rotation of U.S. and coalition forces has nothing to do with that," Rumsfeld said en route to Okinawa when asked about the Iraqi Governing Council's announcement Saturday that an Iraqi transitional government will be in place by the end of June to take over from the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority.
The U.S. defense secretary left Okinawa for South Korea later Sunday, ending a three-day visit to Japan. (Kyodo News)
Article republished, courtesy of Japan Today: http://www.japantoday.com
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Okinawans are about to explode:
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=comment&id=478
U.S. Marines in Japan: Okinawa Map;
http://www.okinawa.usmc.mil/About%20Okinawa/Okinawa%20Map%20Page.html
Today's U.S. Military bases in Okinawa:
http://www.summit-okinawa.gr.jp/a_la/peace/beigun/index2.htm
MILITARY PARTNERSHIP: http://prop1.org/prop1/jmilitar.htm
Photo courtesy of: Orientation maps; http://www.virtualginza.com/japan3.htm
"I'm not in the position to make any specific proposal. We are at the middle stage of our review," Rumsfeld said, referring to Inamine's request.
"But I assure you we've heard what you had to say, we've listened and we've learned," he said, visibly angered by the Okinawa governor's strongly worded request.
Rumsfeld visited Okinawa for the first time and was the first U.S. defense secretary to visit Japan's southernmost island prefecture in 13 years.
The visit was part of his weeklong trip to Japan and South Korea, his first since assuming the post in January 2001, with Iraq's postwar reconstruction and U.S. military realignments at the top of the agenda.
"What Okinawa demands has always been consolidation and reduction of U.S. bases," Inamine said in the half-hour meeting open to the media.
"People often ask why Okinawa people make a huge fuss at times of crimes and accidents involving U.S. service personnel, but I always say it is not only one case, but is part of a series of cases that have taken place over a long period of time," he said.
Rumsfeld responded, "I would add one another thing" as a positive aspect of the presence of U.S. bases in Okinawa. "That is during the decades of the U.S.-Japan security treaty, this part of the world has seen peace."
Okinawa accommodates 75% of U.S. bases in Japan and is regarded as a cornerstone of the U.S. military presence in the Pacific.
Inamine handed over a seven-point petition featuring more reductions in U.S. bases than in the ongoing process under a 1996 bilateral accord, cuts in Marines and other forces in the prefecture, and a thorough review of criminal procedures for U.S. personnel suspected of crimes.
"We think it is imperative that the process of consolidation advances constantly even one step at a time, in terms not only of areas of land occupied but also personnel and training frequency," he said.
After the meeting, Inamine admitted to local reporters that he was demanding and sometimes discourteous, but that he is satisfied about making the people's case heard on a rare occasion of a visit by a U.S. defense chief.
"We did not hear any comment about a possible reduction of bases in Okinawa but I hope that I had some impact as they actually saw bases and heard our strong desire," he said.
A few hundred people gathered in front of the U.S. Marines Camp Foster to protest the heavy U.S. military presence in Okinawa as well as the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Protests were also held around the prefectural government office.
In a press conference Saturday in Tokyo, Rumsfeld said Washington has developed some concepts and ideas on the global realignments and is about to start discussing them with other countries, without elaborating.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi stressed the importance of the Okinawa issue when he met with Rumsfeld on Friday. "Reducing the burden on Okinawa is a big issue for my cabinet," Koizumi said.
Rumsfeld also expressed hope that the two countries will resume discussions on a review of criminal procedures for U.S. military personnel suspected of crimes in Japan, but the two sides have agreed on no specific timetable.
Japan and the U.S. began discussing the issue after May, when a U.S. Marine in Okinawa was accused of rape, but failed in August to reach an agreement over U.S. demands for a U.S. official to be present during Japanese police interrogations.
Under the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement, the U.S. military is not required to hand over suspects until they are indicted. But the U.S. agreed to give "sympathetic consideration" to the handover issue in serious crimes, following the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl by three U.S. servicemen.
Regarding Iraq, Rumsfeld has refrained from pressing Japan to send its troops at an early date.
The Japanese government decided Thursday to review a plan to dispatch an SDF unit by the end of this year after Wednesday's fatal bombing attack on an Italian base in Nasiriyah, southern Iraq, near an area Tokyo had planned to send the troops.
Rumsfeld said earlier Sunday the U.S.-led coalition forces have no plans to begin pulling back from Iraq next June with the planned launch of an Iraqi transitional government.
"The rotation of U.S. and coalition forces has nothing to do with that," Rumsfeld said en route to Okinawa when asked about the Iraqi Governing Council's announcement Saturday that an Iraqi transitional government will be in place by the end of June to take over from the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority.
The U.S. defense secretary left Okinawa for South Korea later Sunday, ending a three-day visit to Japan. (Kyodo News)
Article republished, courtesy of Japan Today: http://www.japantoday.com
Related Articles
Okinawans are about to explode:
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=comment&id=478
U.S. Marines in Japan: Okinawa Map;
http://www.okinawa.usmc.mil/About%20Okinawa/Okinawa%20Map%20Page.html
Today's U.S. Military bases in Okinawa:
http://www.summit-okinawa.gr.jp/a_la/peace/beigun/index2.htm
MILITARY PARTNERSHIP: http://prop1.org/prop1/jmilitar.htm
Photo courtesy of: Orientation maps; http://www.virtualginza.com/japan3.htm