RP `comfort women' welcome Murayama with protests<\/p>\n
MANILA (Reuter): Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama
\narrived in the Philippines yesterday to be confronted by angry
\nwomen demanding compensation for being used as sex slaves by
\nJapanese soldiers in World War II.<\/p>\n
A small group of former \"comfort women\" marched under driving
\nrain to near Murayama's hotel to demand US$200,000 each in
\ncompensation.<\/p>\n
\"I am sure it will be brought up,\" Philippine Foreign
\nSecretary Roberto Romulo told reporters, when asked if President
\nFidel Ramos would raise the issue of comfort women in talks with
\nMurayama today.<\/p>\n
\"We have been working on the individual claims, so obviously
\nwe are sensitive to the issue,\" Romulo said.<\/p>\n
Murayama is expected to repeat apologies for wartime
\natrocities as well as discussing economic and security issues
\nwith leaders of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore
\nduring his week-long swing through the region.<\/p>\n
The Philippine also plans to raise the issue of assistance for
\nthe 605 children born to Filipino women abandoned by their
\nJapanese fathers.<\/p>\n
\"We would like to hear what the Japanese have to say regarding
\nthat point,\" Romulo said.<\/p>\n
The children were born to Filipinos working in Japan as
\n\"entertainers\", usually a euphemism for prostitutes. Some 100,000
\nare in Japan.<\/p>\n
Ramos will seek to boost trade with Japan to take advantage of
\nthe strong yen, by luring Japanese companies to transfer their
\nfactories to the Philippines, officials said.<\/p>\n
He will also ask Murayama for an increase in Official
\nDevelopment Assistance (ODA) to the Philippines, which totaled
\n$721.5 million in 1993. Japan recently pledged over $1.0 billion
\nin assistance for 1994.<\/p>\n
Japan is the Philippines' biggest single donor of official
\naid. Total trade between the two countries reached $5.8 billion
\nin 1993, up by 20 percent from the previous year.<\/p>\n
The group of 50 demonstrators -- led by Rosa Henson, the first
\nFilipino comfort woman to come out and tell her tale last year --
\nmarched to the Manila Hotel waving banners demanding
\n\"Compensation Now\".<\/p>\n
They dispersed peacefully when police asked them.<\/p>\n
Like a beast<\/p>\n
About 200,000 comfort women, most of them Koreans but also
\nFilipinos, Chinese, Taiwanese, Indonesians and Dutch, were
\nforcibly recruited by the Japanese Imperial Army during the war
\nto provide sex for their troops.<\/p>\n
Tokyo denied the existence of the women until researchers
\nuncovered documents in Japan implicating the government.<\/p>\n
Amonita Balajadia, 65, and Juanita Jamot, 69, wept during a
\nprotest by 44 comfort women outside the Japanese embassy here on
\nMonday.<\/p>\n
\"I was treated like a beast,\" Jamot said, shaking with anger.
\n\"Not even mountains of money will redeem my honor\".<\/p>\n
Balajadia told reporters Japanese soldiers in a Philippines
\ncamp had raped her day and night for one week when she was only
\n14, before she managed to escape.<\/p>\n
Jamot said she was 18 when the Japanese abducted her in Manila
\nand took turns raping her for three weeks before she also managed
\nto escape.<\/p>\n
Eighteen Filipinos, out of 146 cases documented by local
\nwomen's groups, have filed a class suit in Tokyo demanding
\ncompensation.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/rp-comfort-women-welcome-murayama-with-protests-1447893297",
"image": ""
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