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Okinawa Assembly Urges Immediate US Hand-over of Rape Suspect
The Okinawa prefectural assembly on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution and petition urging the United States to immediately hand over a US Air Force member who Okinawa police say raped a local woman last week in Chatan in Japan's southernmost prefecture, Kyodo News reported.
The documents sought further consolidation and reduction of US military bases, effective measures to prevent recurrence and an apology and compensation to the victim, the report said.
The prefectural assembly had originally planned to adopt a resolution to protest the rape allegedly committed by Timothy Woodland, a 24-year-old sergeant stationed at US Kadena Air Base in Okinawa.
Representatives of the assembly are scheduled to hand the new resolution and petition to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka and Paul Hester, the top US military commander in Japan, in Tokyo next week.
The resolution and petition blasted the US military for refusing to hand over the suspect in "such a heinous crime" by " using the Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement as an excuse."
The documents said concentration of US bases in Okinawa is a factor leading to repeated criminal cases involving US servicemen there.
The documents said the alleged rape is "totally impermissible" because it occurred "despite serious protests made over past criminal cases involving US servicemen, which caused great anxiety and shock among people in Okinawa."
Okinawa police obtained Woodland's arrest warrant Monday night after detecting his fingerprints at the crime scene and establishing his possible involvement in the rape through witness accounts. They have been waiting for Washington's agreement to hand him over.
Under the Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement, the US is not required to hand over US military personnel suspected of committing crimes until they are indicted by Japanese prosecutors.
But since the rape by three US servicemen of a 12-year-old schoolgirl in Okinawa in 1995, the US agreed to give "sympathetic consideration" to any request by Japan to place in custody US military personnel who are suspects in serious crimes, such as rape and murder, before their indictment.
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