Japan appeals ruling on Chinese gas victims

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, October 04, 2003

Japan appeals ruling on Chinese gas victims

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The Japanese government appealed Friday to the Tokyo High Court over a ruling for governmental compensation to Chinese victims hurt by chemical weapons or shells left behind in China by Japanese invaders in World War II.

The Tokyo District Court ruled Monday the Japanese government should pay a total of 190 million yen (1.7 million US dollars) in compensation to 13 Chinese plaintiffs. The lawsuits, brought up in1996, involve leakage of toxical chemical agent and shell explosion from 1974 to 1995.

In a statement, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Monday's ruling was contrary to the one made by the same court in May over similar cases.

China said approximately two million chemical cannonballs and 100 tons of toxic chemicals were left by the Japanese troops in dozens of Chinese provinces in the World War II.

The weapons pose a grave threat to life. Forty-three people were poisoned and one died when chemical weapons leaked at Qiqihar,a city of northernmost China's Heilongjiang Province on Aug. 4.

Under a memorandum on destruction of chemical weapons abandonedin China signed by the two nations, Japan is committed to completely destroying all chemical weapons in China before 2007.

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