Okinawa assembly adopts anti-US forces resolution

The Okinawa prefectural assembly (local legislature ) has unanimously adopted a resolution protesting a spate of crimes committed by US servicemen in Japan’s southernmost prefecture. The local legislature took the step at an extraordinary plenary session on Friday. A nighttime curfew was imposed last month on all US military personnel stationed in Japan after the alleged rape of a Japanese woman by two US Navy personnel in Okinawa. But two weeks after the curfew was imposed, a US airman allegedly punched and injured a teenager after drinking late at night at a bar in a village in Okinawa. The resolution says it is clear from the recent incidents that the US military’s discipline-tightening measures are not working. It says the lives and human rights of the people of Okinawa can only be protected through the consolidation and downsizing of US bases and by banning US service members from going outside them. The resolution calls for a transfer of custody to the Japanese police of any US service member suspected of committing a crime. It also calls for a fundamental review of the bilateral Status of Forces Agreement and a stricter enforcement of the curfew. Representatives of the prefectural assembly will visit US bases and the US Consulate General in Okinawa early next week to hand the text of the resolution to US officials and to file a protest.