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NEWS - Women-Japan: in Two Years, a
- Subject: NEWS - Women-Japan: in Two Years, a
- From: Rangoonp@xxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 19:17:00
Subject: NEWS - Women-Japan: in Two Years, a Tribunal on Violence Against
Women
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Women-Japan: in Two Years, a Tribunal on Violence Against Women
Inter Press Service
17-DEC-98
TOKYO, (Dec. 17) IPS - Women's groups across Asia have
set December 2000 as the launch date for what will be the
first war crime tribunal focusing on violence against women
during armed conflicts.
The Women's International War Crime Tribunal is actually a
response to the cry for justice made by thousands of women
forced to be sex slaves of Japanese soldiers during World
War II. But women's rights activists say it will also
address
other conflicts during which women faced systematic rape,
sexual slavery and other violence.
"The tribunal is one of the most important initiatives in
the
struggle for justice for women whose suffering has gone and
continue to go unnoticed by the world," says Yayoi Matsui,
of
the Japanese chapter of the umbrella group Violence Against
Women in War Network (VAWW), which comprises women's
organizations from around the world.
She adds that while the tribunal will really be a formal
legal
proceeding, non-government organizations will nonetheless
be presenting evidence that will support the points of view
of
women who have been abused but have been denied the
opportunity to have governments acknowledge what
happened to them, much less get justice.
Foremost among these cases are those of the so-called
"comfort women" forced to provide sex to the Japanese
troops who had invaded and occupied their countries in
World War II.
Research by various scholars indicates that Korean and
Chinese women made up the bulk of the comfort women,
although many Filipino, Indonesian, Thai and even Dutch
women also became the sex slaves of the Japanese
soldiers.
Some were even merely girls at the time, with recorded
cases of 11-year-olds among the soldiers' sex slaves.
For several years, the Japanese government denied the
existence of "comfort stations" set up by the now defunct
Japanese Imperial Army all over Asia to service soldiers.
But following research by Japanese scholars that proved
their existence as well as the growing international uproar
regarding the plight of the comfort women, Tokyo decided to
set up an Asian Women's Fund to provide medicine and
social welfare and financial help to the ex-comfort women.
The Fund, however, is privately financed. Many of the
comfort women, now in their late 60s and 70s, have said
they want compensation to come from the Japanese
government itself, as well as an official apology for what
they
had to go through.
Several lawsuits seeking precisely these have been filed
against the Japanese government, but so far none have
brought satisfactory results.
According to Matsui, several court proceedings have been
held in the past "to judge Japan's acts in Asia" but none of
them -- not even the most famous Tokyo Tribunal that held
more than 400 hearings -- really focused on the violence
that
had been done on the women.
In contrast, the tribunal will not only address the issue of
the
comfort women, but also many instances of the violence
women have had to go through in other armed conflicts
across postwar Asia.
Among these, say women's groups, are the rape some
200,000 women during the war for independence in
Bangladesh in the 1970s and rape used as a means of
torture in the hands of the military government during the
internal conflict in Burma in the 1980s.
Activists also hope the tribunal will tackle the rape and
sexual enslavement of women in East Timor under
Indonesian colonial rule and rape committed by the security
troops during the India-Kashmir war conflict in 1990s.
Australian legal consultant Ustina Dolgopol, who
co-authored the U.N. report "Comfort Women: The
Unfinished Ordeal," says the many legal disadvantages
faced by women are rooted in discrimination and are
inherent in the societal structure.
"The tribunal aims to change this attitude," she says. "By
holding the tribunal, the Japanese people can say we do
value women within Japan and elsewhere in the region,
believe in the equality of women and want new laws based
on the perspective of women's rights."
Women's groups are now collecting evidence across Asia for
presentation at the tribunal -- an awesome task, considering
much of crucial evidence in many of the cases have either
been destroyed or are still being hidden. Activists say this
is
especially true of the "comfort women" cases.
Lawyers and researchers working with Matsui say Asian
comfort women will testify for the first time against
ex-military
police, top ex military men who were involved in the system.
Says Taiwanese lawyer Wang Ching Feng: "It is a civil case
and will be a landmark not only the comfort women but also
in the now increasing consciousness of people's power that
hopes to change the world for the better."
Lawyer Apong Herlina, who is working with Indonesian
comfort women, expresses firm support for the tribunal.
"Former comfort women in Indonesia have kept their
suffering silent for more than five decades," she says.
"There
is a lot of expectation for the tribunal because it brings
them
justice and restores their dignity."
Comments Apong: "The tribunal is important because it sets
a precedent for achieving justice even today when ethnic
Chinese women are struggling regain their dignity after
being
raped by Indonesian soldiers."
Meanwhile, Chinese historian Chen Lifei of the Huadong
Educational College Press says Chinese scholars have
started to collect evidence after years of suppression of
pertinent data.
Their research so far indicates that there were at least 77
comfort stations in Shanghai and that some 200,000
Chinese women were "conscripted" into the service.
Lawyer Wang, for her part, says there are currently 45
women in Taiwan who have revealed their stories as comfort
women. Some researchers though say at least 1,200 women
from the island were forced to become sex slaves of the
Japanese soldiers between 1938 and 1945.