The US military and Japanese police said yesterday they were investigating new allegations of rape by a US serviceman in Okinawa amid uproar after a string of criminal cases.
The case was revealed one day after the US military imposed a sweeping curfew on troops and their families in a bid to stem public anger in Japan.
A Filipina woman reported to police that she was raped by a member of the US Army at a hotel in Okinawa on Monday, a police officer said. She was injured and is receiving medical treatment at a hospital, the officer said.
"We are investigating the case carefully," the police officer said, adding that the soldier was in US military custody.
"The US Army takes this matter very seriously," Army spokeswoman Dottie Vick said. "Army authorities are investigating and will continue to fully cooperate with the Okinawa prefectural police."
The alleged rape was the latest case this month to damage the image of US forces in Japan.
Okinawa police arrested a US Marine -- Staff Sergeant Tyrone Luther Hadnott, 38 -- on Feb. 11 on allegations he raped a 14-year-old girl in his car. Hadnott has admitted trying to forcibly kiss the teenager but denied raping her.
The main opposition Democratic Party filed a demand with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's Cabinet asking for immediate action to prevent further alleged crimes by US troops.
"We are so fed up," Mieko Hokama, a member of a group that opposes US bases, said at a meeting in Tokyo with members of parliament. "We have already had more than enough."
An Australian woman, who was deemed by a Japanese court to have been raped by a US navy man in 2002 in Yokosuka said Japan has been like a "combat zone" even after World War II.
"Even since the war, there have been so many rape cases by US servicemen in Japan," said the woman, who only identified herself as Jane.
"I speak about my case because I don't think the 14-year-old girl could talk about hers right here," she said outside parliament.
Three US Marines gangraped a 12-year-old girl in Okinawa in 1995, leading to huge protests that set in motion a process under which the US agreed to withdraw 8,000 troops from the island. Since the 1995 incident, Okinawa police said they have investigated 14 cases of rape allegedly committed by US servicemen until the end of last year.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
Myanmar yesterday published a parliamentary bill proposing the death sentence for those who detain or violently coerce people into working in online scam centers. Internet fraud factories have flourished in Myanmar, part of Southeast Asia’s scam economy, targeting Internet users worldwide with romance and cryptocurrency investment cons. The multibillion-dollar black market attracts many willing employees, but repatriated foreigners have also reported being trafficked to sites in Myanmar and tortured by scam center operators. The draft legislation would allow capital punishment for “violence, torture, unlawful arrest and detention, or cruel treatment against another person for the purpose of forcing them to commit online scams.” The
RSS