Appeal for the Release of Japanese Taken Hostage in Iraq

————————————– Please transfer and spread to all over the world! ——————————– Appeal for the Release of the three Japanese Taken Hostage in Iraq Issued by the Anti-DU (Depleted Uranium) Groups in Japan April 8, 2004 Today Mr. Noriaki Imai, 18 years old, and two other other Japanese were taken hostage by an armed group in Iraq. Mr. Imai is a member of the Campaign to Abolish DU (Depleted Uranium) as well as director of the NO DU Sapporo Project. The armed group has issued the statement to the effect that ?gthey will kill them unless Self-Defense Forces of Japan withdraws within three days.?h Mr. Imai has been deeply saddened by the fact that many innocent Iraqi children have been suffering from cancer and leukemia. He has become engaged in the activity for abolition of depleted uranium so that DU weapons would not be used again. He has been opposing of Iraq War and the dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq. He went to Iraq in order to see the reality of the DU damage by his own eyes and convey it to as many people as possible. He has been planning to produce a picture booklet about Iraqi children as a means for such purpose. Japanese Government should not have such well-meaning citizens killed. We request that Japanese Government hold the regard for life to be of the greatest importance. It should not be allowed to sacrifice citizens for the sake of the Self-Defense Forces deployed in Iraq. What is needed most in Iraq now is not to send an army, but to extend medical relief for the still increasing victims by the war and the DU weapons. We demand strongly that Japanese Government withdraw the Self-Defense Forces immediately and to try every means to save the three hostages as soon as possible. ?@As the fighting intensifies, similar captures can occur to the civilians of many nationalities engaged in the relief activities in Iraq. Recently a shell fell just near the base camp of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces in Samawah. Now that the whole land of Iraq including Samawah area has become the fighting field, the condition of not sending the SDF to a fighting field has already collapsed. The swift withdrawal of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces must be the sincere hope of the majority of the people, not only that of particular groups, in Iraq. Anti-DU Groups in Japan Campaign for Abolition of DU Weapons http://popup12.tok2.com/home2/rekkauran/ Tokyo Citizens?f Network for DU Abolition http://www.nodu.net/ NO DU Hiroshima Project http://www.nodu-hiroshima.org/ NO DU Sapporo Project http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/no_du_sapporo/ Hokkaido Peace Net ———————————————– NO DU Hiroshima Project http://www.nodu-hiroshima.org/ order@nodu-hiroshima.org ———————————————-