|
|
 |
| Sunday, 12 May 2002 |
 |
|
 |
World |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Japan
denies China report over North Korean defectors
TOKYO, May 11 (Reuters) An angry Japan dismissed Chinese claims on Saturday that its diplomats had allowed police to enter a consulate to drag out five North Koreans who had rushed inside apparently to seek asylum. The diplomatic row has prompted Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to accuse Chinese guards of violating international law by entering the compound of the consulate in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang without permission. Japan said there was no truth to Chinese allegations that consular officials had given their consent for the five people -- including a weeping toddler in a pink pinafore and pigtails -- to be seized inside the consulate and dragged out by Chinese police. "We have investigated the incident, and Japan did not agree to the entrance of the police to the consulate and the removal of the five people," the Foreign Ministry said. "We reiterate and strongly request that they be speedily handed over, and that China apologise and provide guarantees such an incident will not happen again," said the statement, unusually harsh for Japan. The two Asian giants, whose relations are regularly chilled by rows ranging from trade to wartime recriminations, have exchanged increasingly angry words over Wednesday's incident that was fuelled by graphic video released a day later that showed all five asylum seekers inside the consulate compound. Tokyo says the Chinese police violated diplomatic conventions by entering the compound without permission. Beijing insists the action was necessary for security reasons. A team of senior Japanese diplomats sent by Koizumi arrived in Shenyang on Saturday to investigate the incident, which has fanned Japanese resentment against China. Tokyo is jittery about its giant neighbour's emergence as a regional rival. WHO DID WHAT? China said on Saturday it had received Tokyo's permission to grab the asylum seekers -- whose capture aroused widespread fury after Japanese television aired the video showing two North Korean women and the child wrestled to the ground and dragged from inside the consulate's gates. Japan had already called in the Chinese ambassador to lodge a strong protest over two North Korea men who had been seized inside the compound despite the protests of its diplomats. "It is groundless to accuse the Chinese side of entering the consulate without consent," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan as saying. Chinese police had received the Japanese deputy consul's consent to nab the two men and added that a consular official later thanked police for taking away all five, Kong said. "China says the action was to ensure security, but this explanation is completely unacceptable," Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi told parliament's Lower House on Friday to a loud chorus of approval from lawmakers. Japan was worried about the North Koreans' human rights, she said. The screaming women and the tiny girl were shown on the video being dragged away by the Chinese police before several other men, apparently Japanese consulate staff, arrived on the scene. DID THEY STAND BY The episode has fuelled domestic criticism of Japan's Foreign Ministry, already under fire for a series of scandals. The video showed one man who appeared to be a consulate guard follow the North Korean men as they dashed inside. Another man picked up and returned caps lost by the Chinese police during the scuffle inside the gate. "The deputy consul and the other consular officials must be taken to task," the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said in an editorial. "Japan was exposed to the world as a country that does not have a sense of preserving human rights no matter what it takes." The spat comes at an uneasy time for the two Asian giants, now preparing to commemorate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties in September 1972. "We view Japan-China ties as being of great importance and believe a speedy resolution of this problem is important," the Japanese Foreign Ministry said. "It is only natural that discussions be carried out calmly." The incident, which followed a spate of successful bids by North Koreans seeking asylum, highlights China's refusal to recognise as refugees tens of thousands of North Koreans hiding on its border with its long-time communist ally. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
