The Jenkins family to see dream come true in Jakarta
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta
The administration of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who will face an upper house election on Sunday, has chartered a special plane to fly U.S. Army sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins -- who Washington says is a deserter -- and his two daughters from Pyongyang to Jakarta on Friday, to reunite with his Japanese wife Hitomi Soga.
Soga is scheduled to arrive on Thursday from Japan and the reunion will take place at the Intercontinental Midplaza Hotel in Central Jakarta, where Soga will stay.
She was separated from Jenkins -- whom she married in 1980 -- and their two daughters Mika, 21, and Belinda, 18, in 2002.
Soga was abducted to North Korea at the age of 19 on her way home from shopping with her mother on Sado island, Japan. Her plight has mesmerized the Japanese public.
Koizumi succeeded in persuading North Korean leader Kim Jong- ill to release her and other Japanese citizens in May this year.
"I can't wait to see my family before me, and give them a big hug," Soga told a nationally televised news conference from her hometown of Mano, northern Japan, as quoted by the Associated Press.
Her 64-year-old husband turned down Koizumi's offer in May to go to Japan, fearing that he would be handed over to the U.S. military for court martial. U.S. President George Bush turned down Koizumi's request for special treatment for Jenkins, whom the U.S. says defected while on patrol in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea in 1965.
"I strongly feel that I want the four of us to live together in Japan at the very end," Soga said.
Japan and North Korea decided upon the family reunion in Jakarta as Indonesia and the United States do not have an extradition treaty. During her visit to Jakarta last week, foreign minister Yoriko Kawaguchi disclosed that Jenkins wished to celebrate Belinda's 19th birthday on July 23. It is still unclear how long the family will stay in Indonesia and where they will go next.
"They (Japan) formally asked us to host the reunion, and we decided to do it based on humanitarian reasons," foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Koizumi said, "I'm happy for her. We ... will keep making efforts so that she and her family can live in Japan."
His spokesman, Hiroyuki Hosoda, strongly denied allegations that the government had dramatized the reunion to boost the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's chances on Sunday.
"This is a humanitarian issue, not a political one," he said.