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	Chinese and Japanese leaders meet to redolve tensions by NYT / Washington Post / Chinaview China / Japan   April 23, 2005   "Koizumi, Hu meet to address Tensions, by Ellen Nakashima. (Washington Post)   Chinese President Hu Jintao urged Japan to translate its remorse over wartime atrocities into "actual action" during a much-anticipated meeting here Saturday that both sides said they hoped would ease dangerously heightened tensions between the two countries.   Hu and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reached no substantive agreements in their 46-minute talk but acknowledged that it was an important step toward restoring civil relations.   The meeting took place a day after Koizumi, addressing an Asian-African summit attended by representatives of more than 100 countries, reiterated an apology for World War II aggression against Asian countries.   The tensions had been building for months, but only in recent weeks did anti-Japanese protests involving thousands of young demonstrators erupt in a dozen Chinese cities. The protests were sparked by Japan''s approval of school textbooks that the Chinese and Koreans say gloss over Japan''s wartime atrocities, its sex slavery of Asian women, the 1937 Nanjing Massacre that historians estimate killed 200,000 to 300,000 people and Japan''s bid to become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.   "I would like you to recognize history correctly, and I would like you to translate your remorse into actual action," Hu told Koizumi during the meeting, according to a Japanese Foreign Ministry official.   Particularly vexing for China are pilgrimages by Koizumi and other Japanese politicians to the Yasukuni Shrine, a memorial to Japan''s military dead, including convicted war criminals. Though Koizumi last visited the shrine in January 2004, a delegation of Japanese lawmakers went to the shrine on Friday and offered prayers.   Hu raised the issue of the shrine pilgrimage as an example of "wrong moves" taken by Japan. Koizumi said, however, that Hu "did not intend to discuss or debate" each issue and that he agreed.   China also has been increasingly concerned about a U.S.-Japanese strategic agreement that was revised in February to include for the first time the area around Taiwan as a "common strategic objective." Japan has since 1972 respected Beijing''s stance that Taiwan is an "inalienable territory" of China.   On Saturday evening, Hu told reporters that he told Koizumi that "the question of Taiwan should be correctly handled" and that Japan should "demonstrate its adherence to the one-China policy and opposition to Taiwan independence.. The issue of Taiwan touches not just the nucleus of the interest of China. It is related to the feelings of 1.3 billion people," Hu told Koizumi, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry official.   Animosities have also been growing concerning overlapping claims to exclusive economic zones in the East China Sea and sovereignty over a group of uninhabited islands.   "Japan fears the rise of China, and China has great worries" about Japan''s position on Taiwan, said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at the People''s University of China. The dispute is not simply about textbooks, but reflects a range of strategic issues that arise because of China''s growing economic clout and geopolitical aspirations, he said. If nothing else, he said, the meeting was important for reducing tensions. "The danger is that there are more and more serious disputes between China and Japan," he said. "If this trend is continued, future conflict -- even military -- becomes possible."   In the economic realm, China has replaced the United States as Japan''s largest trading partner, Koizumi pointed out at the news conference afterward. Soured relations would put some $212 billion in annual trade at risk.   "There is antagonism on both sides, but we should not accuse each other about the past, but rather recognize the importance of developing friendly relationships into the future," Koizumi told Hu, according to Akira Chiba, assistant press secretary for Japan''s Foreign Ministry.   Hu, for his part, told Koizumi he hoped to use the meeting as "a catapult" toward a "healthy and constructive relationship," Chiba said.   The talk was the first between the two men since November, when they met at a summit in Santiago, Chile. At that meeting, Hu also raised the issue of the shrine, a sore point that has prevented China from inviting Koizumi for a state visit.   April 22 , 2005   "Japan''s PM apologizes for War Misdeeds", by Raymond Bonner & Norimitsu Onishi. (New York Yimes)   Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday offered the most public apology in a decade over Japan''s wartime aggression in Asia, apparently in a move to press China''s top leader to meet him and to counter accusations that Japan has been whitewashing its past militarism.   Speaking at an Asia-Africa summit meeting here, with President Hu Jintao of China and other world leaders looking on, Mr. Koizumi said, "Japan, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations."   Without identifying any other country, he added: "Japan squarely faces these facts of history in a spirit of humility. And with feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology always engraved in mind, Japan has resolutely maintained, consistently since the end of World War II, never turning into a military power but an economic power."   The apology did not include anything that Mr. Koizumi''s predecessors or he himself had not said before. But it came on the heels of violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China and was made by a prime minister who has antagonized China by praying annually at Yasukuni Shrine, seen by many Asians as a symbol of unrepentant militarism, and by many Japanese simply as a place to revere the dead. The apology was also made in a public forum before world leaders, in contrast to more recent apologies, which have been issued in Japan.   Asians here, who have long accused the Japanese of lip service on the matter, greeted the apology skeptically. Those doubts deepened later Friday when a member of Mr. Koizumi''s cabinet and 80 other lawmakers prayed in a spring ritual at Yasukuni Shrine, where Class A war criminals are among those enshrined.   That Mr. Koizumi "expressed this attitude in this arena is welcome; we welcome it," Kong Quan, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters in Jakarta. "But to express it is one aspect. What''s of much more importance is the action. You have to make it a reality."   By insisting that the apology was not for recent events in China, Japanese officials have tried to avoid projecting the impression, especially in Japan, that they had yielded to the Chinese. The Japanese news media on Friday night repeated the government line that the apology was not in response to recent anger in China and South Korea that Japan''s junior high school textbooks glossed over such wartime issues as Asian forced laborers and the Rape of Nanking.   In any meeting between Mr. Koizumi and Mr. Hu, the issue of Yasukuni Shrine is likely to come up, as it did during an informal meeting between them at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Santiago, Chile, in November. Mr. Hu demanded that Mr. Koizumi stop visiting the shrine, and he has not visited it so far this year.   "For Koizumi, this speech was already another step, but China will likely request that Japan take yet another step regarding the Yasukuni issue," said Kazuko Mori, a professor of Chinese politics at Waseda University in Tokyo. "It is really delicate if Koizumi says that he won''t visit Yasukuni. It would not be accepted in Japan if he stopped visiting Yasukuni because of the anti-Japan demonstrations or outside pressure."   Despite repeated apologies over the years, actions including the Yasukuni visits and the growing tendency of Japanese textbooks to play down Japan''s invasion and occupation of mainland Asia have bred skepticism about Japan''s sincerity.   "Remorse over the past must be genuine and must be put into action," Lee Hae Chan, the South Korean prime minister, said in a speech at the meeting here, hours after Mr. Koizumi spoke. "A country that distorts history by glossing over the colonial past and hiding their misdeeds, thus concealing them from the younger generations, will not be able to free itself from the shackles of the past."   Even as Japan is trying to raise its international stature as part of an effort to gain a permanent seat on an enlarged United Nations Security Council, its dispute with China, partly over history, has drawn an unwanted spotlight on its problematic past. Protests against Japan have been held in South Korea and Vietnam, and officials in places like Malaysia and Indonesia have made critical comments.   Before Mr. Koizumi''s speech on Friday, Singapore, which was occupied by Japanese forces during World War II, released a statement criticizing the Japanese government''s endorsement of junior high school textbooks that "approve this rather strange interpretation of the Pacific War in Asia." Singapore later issued a statement welcoming Mr. Koizumi''s apology.   If Japan and China''s growing rivalry for influence in Asia lies underneath their dispute, their growing economic interdependence has mollified their positions in recent days. Voices have risen in Japan this week that continued tension would hurt Japanese businesses in China, now Japan''s biggest trading partner. On Friday, China''s Ministry of Commerce said boycotts of Japanese goods would harm both countries'' economic interests.   (Raymond Bonner reported from Jakarta for this article, and Norimitsu Onishi from Tokyo).   19th April, 2005   Japanese newspapers say attitude on history puts diplomacy in stalemate . (Xinhua / China People''s Daily)   Sixty years after the end of World War II, Japan, which once wreaked havoc in the Asia-Pacific region, is still seeing rocky relations with neighbors as a result of its wrong attitude toward history, Japan''s Asahi Shimbun daily said Monday. Maintaining friendly relations with Asian countries, especially with China, is one of the most important issues in Japan''s post-war foreign policy, the newspaper said in an editorial.   However, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi''s visit to a war criminal related shrine has become a stumbling block to the efforts in improving ties, the editorial said. "What epitomizes the Japanese government''s posture is Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi''s worshipping at Yasukuni Shrine," the paper said.   Koizumi has paid annual pilgrimages to the shrine which honors Japanese W.W.II Class-A war criminals alongside with other Japanese war dead since taking office in 2001, in defiance of barrages of criticism from Asian countries including China and South Korea.   "The prime minister''s attitude has raised anger among the Chinese and given the impression that Japan''s unrepentant of what it did in the past," the daily said. "Koizumi has soured Japan''s relations with China by persisting in visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, ... Has Koizumi seriously weighted the gains and losses caused by his actions in the field of foreign policy?" questioned the paper.   Meanwhile, opinion polls carried on Japan''s Mainichi Shimbun daily also found on Monday 76 percent of the respondents regarded that the premier hadn''t done enough in efforts to improve Japan-China relations.   Forty-five percent of the respondents said Koizumi should stop visiting the shrine, up four points from that of December, while support rate for the premier dropped four points to 42 percent.   Another editorial by the Asahi Shimbun daily also criticized Japanese Education Ministry''s recent approval of the disputed history textbook, accused by some Asian countries of white washing Japan''s atrocities committed in its colonial rules and aggressionsin Asian countries in the first half of the 20th century.   "The most disturbing thing about this textbook, however, is its consistent attempt to portray Japan''s modern and contemporary history that has bright and dark sides in the most self-serving light," the newspaper said.   "It was Japan that forced terrible sacrifices on its Asian neighbors," the paper said, in response to an assertion made by the textbook''s producer, the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, that the book is "completely free from propaganda by the Allies that criticized Japanese invasions."   "If the society truly cares about Japan, it must fully respect the feelings of people in other nations. This is the only way to deepen mutual understanding with Japan''s neighbors," the editorial said.   The textbook detonated an arsenal of resentment in some Asian countries. In South Korea, President Roh Moo-hyun has unleashed unprecedented harsh words over Japan''s tampering with history, reversing his previous modest policy on this issue.   Japan''s attitude on history also sent tens of thousands of Chinese demonstrators onto streets over the past several weeks, rendering the largest anti-Japan protest ever since the two countries resumed diplomatic ties in 1972.   The demonstrators asked the Japanese government to face up to history and called for boycotting Japanese goods as a spate of Japanese enterprises were known to have bankrolled the textbook.   Yoshio Nakata, executive president of the Japan Association forthe Promotion of International Trade, told Xinhua that some Japanese businesses do not have a clear knowledge of the history and part of them are under the thumb of right-wingers.   He said a lot of Japanese do not have a deep understanding of that history and the youth are indifferent to politics, for which the post-war education system is to blame.   "The history that youngsters learn from their textbooks is an extremely important matter. Parents, guardians and teachers must keep their eyes open and choose for their communities the type of textbooks that will be suitable for future member of the international community," the Asahi Shimbun daily said.   As for Japan''s bid for a permanent membership in the UN Security Council, the paper warned that Japan''s ambition had met strong objections from Asian countries. "What strategy can Japan have when it cannot even win the support of its neighbors? " the paper questioned.
	It's the Burmese who are asking for Sanctions by Jody Williams International Herald Tribune Burma / Myanmar   April 26, 2005   This month the UN Commission on Human Rights issued its latest, now annual, condemnation of ongoing rights violations in Myanmar, highlighting in particular the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, general secretary of the National League for Democracy, and her deputy, Tin Oo, who have been held under house arrest since they were attacked in May 2003.   I was able to meet with Suu Kyi at her home in Yangon, the capital, just three months before that attack, while she was traveling in the north of Myanmar to promote democracy.   During that visit, she said that although the authorities had tried to destroy the NLD after prohibiting its candidates, and those of other prodemocratic parties, from convening a Parliament after their decisive electoral victory in 1990, a combination of internal and external pressures had allowed the parties to survive.   She said that the NLD was continuing to ask for international sanctions to isolate the military regime and help force peaceful change in the country.   Now the people of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, are again asking the international community to stand with them as they engage in the largest civil disobedience action the country has ever seen. The NLD, which has never legally been banned in Myanmar, initiated a public petition late last year calling on the authorities to release Suu Kyi.   A member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines visiting Myanmar recently was told that by late February, almost a half a million people had added their names to that call.   The simple act of signing a petition is illegal under the military junta's draconian laws, and people who have previously circulated petitions requesting political change or challenging decisions of the junta now languish in jail. When the ICBL representative asked if people were afraid to sign the petition, members of the NLD's Central Committee responded, "Yes, they are afraid. But they sign."   The petition campaign continues to grow, virtually ignored or unknown outside Myanmar. Just as the 1990 election showed massive popular support for democratic governance, this petition shows popular condemnation of the seizure and detention of Myanmar's Nobel Peace laureate.   For every person who risks signing the petition, there are many more who are sympathetic but afraid to take action. Yet many Burmese people continue to be willing to take significant risks to try to bring about peaceful change. It is now time for external pressure to be stepped up and consistently applied.   Some argue that sanctions against the military junta should be dropped and replaced by "constructive engagement" with the regime. This is despite the call of the NLD itself for sanctions, and the clear example of the international isolation and economic sanctions against apartheid South Africa that helped internal forces bring democracy to that nation.   For nonviolent sanctions to work, there must be a global consensus, not just the current series of disconnected and uncoordinated national policies. Myanmar has never lost the support of key states, which help supply it with arms, for example, such as Singapore and Pakistan - neither a beacon of democracy.   The military junta must not be allowed to continue to hold democracy hostage in Myanmar. External pressure must be applied in support of activists if we want nonviolent political change.   The international community must unite in applying effective pressure on the Burmese dictatorship - politically and economically - until it cedes power to those who earned it legitimately at the ballot box.   (Jody Williams is founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize).   © 2005 IHT
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