Japan insisted yesterday it would not bow to the demands of Islamic militants in Iraq who threatened to behead a young Japanese unless Tokyo withdraws its troops from the country within 48 hours.
"The Self-Defense Forces will not withdraw," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a staunch US ally, said as he went ahead with a tour of typhoon damage in western Japan. "We must not bow to terrorism."
The al-Qaeda-linked group of Iraq's most wanted man Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi released a video overnight on the Internet of a shaggy-haired Japanese-speaking man in a white T-shirt, at the feet of three armed and masked men.
"We are giving the Japanese government 48 hours in which to withdraw its troops from Iraq, otherwise this infidel will join the others [executed]," a militant said in the video.
Among the others, the militant mentioned the American Nicholas Berg and Briton Kenneth Bigley, who were both decapitated.
The Japanese man said on the video: "Koizumi, they demand the Japanese government withdraw the Japanese Self-Defense Forces from Iraq or they will chop off my head.
"I'm sorry, but I want to come back to Japan," he said unemotionally in Japanese.
Japan identified the hostage as Shosei Koda, a 24-year-old from southern Fukuoka province who "has been wandering around many countries," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, the government spokesman.
Koda had been in New Zealand on a working holiday until July but had not been in contact since, his father said, according to the foreign ministry.
The incident marked the second hostage crisis faced by Koizumi, a close supporter of US President George W. Bush, since his historic decision to deploy troops to Iraq despite widespread domestic opposition.
In April militants kidnapped three Japanese aid workers and two journalists in Iraq but they were released unharmed after days of mediation.
Ambushes by Iraqi insurgents killed two Japanese diplomats last year and two Japanese journalists in May.
Koizumi told parliament late yesterday that Japan's involvement in Iraq to help with humanitarian and reconstruction work was "understood by the general public in Iraq.
"Regardless of this, captors are trying to remove the Self-Defense Forces from the country by taking Mr Koda hostage," Koizumi said.
The military deployment to Iraq is Japan's first since World War II to a country where fighting is going on.
Katsuya Okada, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, who has criticized the dispatch as a violation of the pacifist constitution, said there is "no reason to listen to the kidnappers' demands."
However, some 120 peace activists protested outside parliament demanding Japan withdraw its troops.
Documentary filmmaker Hiroshi Shinomiya told public broadcasterNHK he met Koda at a hotel in the Jordanian capital Amman on Oct. 19. Koda told him he would take a public bus the next day to Iraq "simply because he wanted to see it."
"I told him he should not go, but he replied saying, 'No, I'll be just fine,'" Shinomiya said.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RSS