More than 200 local residents gathered Sunday in the northeastern
city Harbin to rally behind 18 fellow citizens who are suing the
Japanese government for injuries they sustained by chemical weapons
left behind by Japanese troops in World War II.
Wang Guozhi, a citizen of Harbin, said, "Although Japan's invasion
war against China, which caused massive destruction of human life
and property, ended more than 50 years ago, the chemical weapons
left behind by the Japanese troops are posing a serious threat to
life and property of Chinese people."
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)
reaffirmed in May 2000 that it held the Japanese government
responsible for destroying the chemical weapons the Japanese
invaders abandoned in China during World War II.
China has declared that the Japanese army used and left behind
large quantities of chemical weapons in Chinese territory during
its invasion of China during World War II.
The Japanese government has admitted its army used and later
abandoned the weapons, and agrees it must destroy them, according
to OPCW Deputy Secretary-General John Gee.
On
December 17 and 18 last year, the local court in Tokyo heard
witness testimony from the 18 Chinese victims who were injured in
seven separate incidents of explosions and accidental leaks of
thechemical weapons.
Chinese lawyer Su Xiangxiang, as a witness for the victims, and
three Japanese lawyers for the Chinese plaintiffs, appeared in the
court. Su presented testimonies he had arduously collected over the
past years.
The lawsuit was accepted by the local court in early 1996, but no
substantial progress was made until testimony and evidence were
presented last May. Before that, more than 10 hearings were held to
debate the merit of the case.
According to court records, the injuries to plaintiffs were
sustained during the leak of a mustard gas bomb in 1974, in which
sailors aboard a ship on a local river were poisoned; a leak of
barreled poisonous gas in Mudanjiang in 1982; and the explosion of
a poison gas bomb in Shuangcheng in 1995, and four other cases.
The plaintiffs want an apology from the Japanese government and 360
million Japanese yen in compensation.
"Over the past five years, the Japanese government obstructed the
local court in Tokyo to start the process of investigations, saying
that the claims of the lawsuit fell short of legal basis," said one
of the three Japanese defense attorneys.
The Japanese lawyer said the Chinese victims have the right to ask
for compensation from Japan, under international humanitarian law,
the international human rights law and private international
law.
"It is justifiable for the Chinese victims to claim compensation
from the Japanese government through legal procedures, which will
help stir the desire for permanent peace in both the Chinese and
Japanese people," said Wang Guozhi.
Between February and July this year, the local court of Tokyo will
hold four more hearings to get direct testimony from the victims,
according to sources.
Statistics from the local public security department show that over
the past 20 years, more than 10,000 bombs confirmed to have been
left behind by the Japanese army have been discovered in northeast
China.
China and Japan jointly started a clean-up campaign of abandoned
chemical weapons in Bei'an city, Heilongjiang, in September
2000.
More than 700,000 items of chemical ammunitions are estimated to
have been left in China by Japan, which has an obligation to remove
these weapons within ten years, under the terms of the Convention
for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which came into effect in
April 1997.
(Xinhua News
Agency January 8, 2002)