Comfort women threaten suit against minister

Comfort women threaten suit against minister

JAKARTA (JP): Almost 250 Yogyakarta World War II comfort women
have threatened to sue Minister of Social Services Inten Suweno
for accepting Rp 9 billion (US$3.7 million) of compensation from
Japan, their lawyer said yesterday.

Budi Santoso, director of the Yogyakarta Legal Aid Institute
(LBH), said yesterday the former jugun ianfu (comfort women) were
still trying amicable ways to resolve the issue.

Budi said he had written to Inten and related government
agencies earlier this month concerning the matter. The second
inquiry would be sent in mid-May.

Budi said a lawsuit, representing 249 former comfort women in
the area, would follow if Inten did not respond after three
inquiries. He said they planned to register the suit with the
Central Jakarta District Court in May or June.

He said the women would sue Inten for not paying them the
money, which the government would use instead to build homes for
the elderly.

Of the 249 women, four women have signed a token of approval.
Budi said this was sufficient as most of them, forced into
prostitution during the Japanese occupation between 1942 and
1945, are illiterate, in poor health and above the age of 70.

He said he would like the problem resolved as soon as possible
because difficulties would arise when a comfort women dies, which
makes proof of damage and accurate identification of the next of
kin almost impossible.

He was puzzled at the Indonesian government's sudden
involvement in the matter. The government has never supported the
women's struggles over the last four years to seek apology and
compensation from the Japanese government.

"Most importantly, this matter has much to do with the women's
self-respect which was seriously compromised many years ago," he
said.

"The Japanese government has yet to apologize formally and
directly to the comfort women and provide them with compensation
as stipulated under the United Nations resolution on the Human
Rights Commission issued in July 1996," Budi said.

He said many Japanese have criticized the way the reparations
money has been collected. The money is derived from the
government and taxpayers and channeled to the private group Asian
Women's Fund which was established to accept donations from
government officials.

"The Japanese feel that the methods of raising reparations is
a form of extortion by their government to shift the burden of
responsibility to the public and treat the comfort women
situation at arm's length," he said.

Budi said he would like to know whether the Indonesian
government has actually accepted the reparations.

Budi called on the minister to consider and review her
decision to accept the reparations from the Japanese government.

Inten said Tuesday that it was the women's right to file a
lawsuit against her but insisted that the government has already
decided on how to spend the money. (01)