Comfort women to sue Japan, government

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Almost 250 comfort women forced to work for the occupying Japanese troops during the Second World War are rejecting a government plan to divert Rp 9 billion (US$4 million) to rest homes, their lawyers said yesterday.

They are threatening to sue the Japanese ambassador and the Indonesian minister of social services unless the plan is canceled and the money given directly to the women.

In their letter of protest sent to President Soeharto, their lawyers from the Yogyakarta chapter of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute said the money had been wrongly channeled.

The Japanese government is to channel the compensation through the Asia Women's Club to the Indonesian Ministry of Social Services.

Budi Hartono, one of the lawyers, said that according to a July 1996 United Nations' resolution, the Japanese government should formally apologize to the victims before giving any compensation.

Therefore the lawyers urged Tokyo to withhold the money until all the proper procedures had been followed.

"On behalf of our clients, we will sue the Japanese ambassador and the government, in this case the women's affairs ministry, if the money is given now," Budi said.

The institute represents 249 women who were forced to become Japanese troops' sex slaves in the Second World War. The women were part of thousands of Indonesian women who became victims of Japanese atrocities during their occupation of Indonesia from 1942 to 1945.

Budi said the Japanese occupation caused endless suffering to Indonesians, especially to those kept as comfort women.

"The Asian Women's Club should be dissolved because it's only a tool of the Japanese government's political engineering. It has given misleading information about Japanese troops' wartime atrocities," Budi said.

The institute also urged the Japanese government to include in its school history curriculum details about Japan's less honorable actions during the war .

Budi warned that the issue surrounding compensation for former comfort women could cause unrest that might disrupt the upcoming election if not handled properly. (23/aan)