'Comfort women' seek compensation

JAKARTA (JP): About 300 former soldiers, workers and sex slaves who worked for the Japanese occupation forces during World War II tried again on Tuesday to press the Japanese government for compensation and unpaid wages.

Led by Yusuf Tamin, the former soldiers (heiho), workers (romusha) and "comfort women" marched to the Japanese embassy in Central Jakarta on Tuesday morning. The soldiers claimed Japan had not paid their monthly salaries from the period 1942 to 1945.

"I was only paid once," said Harjo, one of the protesters who were met by an embassy staff member at about 9 a.m.

A Japanese diplomat, identified only as Nakayama by Antara, received five delegates.

The embassy repeated its long-standing stance that Japan paid all its war compensation obligations to Indonesia in 1958, including its obligations to its former workers. However, the embassy promised to convey the demands to Tokyo.

In the then Japanese-occupied Asia-Pacific region, which included Indonesia, there were around 200,000 women who served as "comfort women" (jugun ianfu) for the Japanese troops. In Yogyakarta and Central Java there were reportedly about 200 of these women.

Romusha were forced to work for Japan when it occupied Indonesia for the three years up to 1945. Heiho were formally recruited as soldiers.

The group on Tuesday demanded that Japan apologize for its cruel treatment of them during the war and also pay their salaries.

The protest came amid growing international and domestic pressure for Japan to apologize for its actions during the World War II.

Through the Asian Women's Fund, a non-governmental organization, the country has already handed over large sums of money as compensation to war victims, including about Rp 9 billion given to Indonesia in the mid-1990s.

The Ministry of Social Services, which received the money, then assigned it to be used for building homes for the elderly.

"The protesters were asked to return on Feb. 26," Antara reported. (prb)