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> >A mock international war crimes tribunal convened in The Hague >Monday to prepare to pass final judgment on charges that Japan's >wartime emperor Hirohito and his government were accomplices in >forcing Asian women into sexual slavery during World War II. >On Monday the so-called Women's International War Crimes Tribunal >on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery met to give a summary of the >proceedings held in Tokyo a year ago. >In Tokyo the court, set up by a coalition of women's groups and >human rights campaigners with the aim of ending the silence about >the World War II sex slaves in Asia, had found the defendants guilty >of crimes against humanity for overseeing the Imperial Army's >"comfort women" system. >Over 200,000 women from across Asia, mostly Koreans and Chinese, >are believed to have been forced to work as sex slaves in Japanese >military brothels. >The victims were forcibly abducted and taken to buildings near the >front lines, euphemistically dubbed "comfort stations", so soldiers >could use them as involuntary prostitutes. >Presiding judge Gabrielle Kirk-McDonald of the United States, the >former president of the UN war crimes tribunal for the former >Yugoslavia, adressed the gathering Monday. She praised the former >sex slaves for coming forward to seek justice. >Kirk-McDonald said the judges presiding over the mock war crimes >court had tried to seek justice in a "full, fair and impartial way". >The court's formal judgment to be pronounced here on Tuesday will >have no legal force. But it is intended to have maximum moral impact. >"I hope the judgement will influence the Japanese government to do >something for me and the other women," said 75-year-old Suhannah, a >former comfort woman from Indonesia. >Joint chief prosecutor Ustina Dolgopol, an Australian expert in >international law, said the prosecution had asked that the Japanese >government be sentenced to provide some sort of satisfaction to the >victims. >"They have to admit to the facts and offer a full and frank >apology," she told the court. Dolgopol also asked for payment of >compensation to the victims and help in setting up memorials for the >victims. >"A comprehensive appology is the most crucial, the lack of honesty >of the Japanese government is an affront to former comfort women," >she said. >Many of the victims are now in their 70s but are still determined >to fight for an official Japanese apology and compensation for their >suffering. >"We have had wishy-washy unofficial appologies, I want an official >apology and I want compensation," said Jan Ruff-O'Herne, a Dutch >women who was 19 years old when she was forced to work as a >prostitute for the Japanese army in Indonesia. >"I don't want charity, I want compensation from Japan," she said. >Patricia Viseur-Sellers, the other chief prosecutor, said the >enslaved women suffered "untold physical and mental anguish". She >told the court that the women were forcibly transfered to the >brothels where they suffered countless rapes, were confined to small >cells, underwent forced abortions and were starved. >"Nobody understands how much we suffered, only the women who went >through it with us," Ruff-O'Herne told AFP. >The 78-year-old said that she was removed from a Japanese >internment camp in Indonesia in 1944 with 10 other girls who looked >pretty. >"We were loaded onto a lorry and dropped off at a brothel in >Semarang, on the island of Java," Ruff-O'Herne said. >It took her 50 years to be able to speak about what happend to her. > >Sher Singh > > >-- FYI ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
