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After rape of schoolgirl
Okinawans protest U.S. military
By
LeiLani Dowell
Published Apr 6, 2008 10:46 PM
A March 23 rally in Okinawa, Japan, protested the continued presence of the
U.S. military on the island, after the rape of a 14-year-old schoolgirl by a
U.S. Marine. The protest cited a string of crimes involving U.S. service
members, including the recent murder of a taxi driver in which a man from the
U.S. Navy is being questioned.
According to Agence France-Presse and Xinhua, the protest was organized by
local parents’ groups, lawyers, labor unions and women’s rights
activists. (March 23) Despite driving rain and wind, about 6,000 people turned
out to denounce the U.S. military—making it the largest demonstration
against the U.S. military there since 1995, after U.S. service members gang
raped a 12-year-old girl.
In the current case, the soldier was handed over from Japanese custody into the
hands of U.S. military authorities. Their response was simply to impose a
two-week, round-the-clock curfew on U.S. soldiers and relatives at the Okinawa
base and two others in Japan. The survivor has dropped the charges after
intense media coverage of the case—some of which blamed the survivor.
More than 40,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan; and more than half of
those are located in Okinawa.
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