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Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 March 2000 Issue No. 474 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 March 2000 Issue No. 474
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Guerrillas for cash
By Ranwa Yehia"Cowardly and Shameful", "The Hoax", "A Betrayal", "The Official Crime" -- so read the front-page headlines of local Lebanese papers on Saturday in reference to the government's decision to deport four Japanese Red Army (JRA) guerrillas wanted by Tokyo for decades.
Haruo Wako, Masao Adachi, Kazuo Tohira and Mariko Yamamo were secretly transferred from Roumieh prison, near Beirut, to the airport, where a regular commercial flight took them to Amman, Jordan. In Amman, a chartered Russian flight was waiting to transport them to Tokyo, where they refused to cooperate with Japanese interrogators.
Meanwhile, a fifth JRA leader, Kozo Okamoto, was released on Tuesday after spending three years in a Lebanese prison, becoming the first person to ever be granted political asylum in Lebanon's history.
The JRA is a radical Marxist Japanese group that emerged in the 1960s and led several domestic anti-government attacks. Like many revolutionary leftist groups of the time, the JRA sympathised with the Palestinian cause and offered assistance to Palestinians fighting against Israel.
In 1972, Okamoto was arrested with other Palestinian fighters after leading a serious attack against Israel at Lod Airport. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and subjected to severe torture by Israeli intelligence officers. Okamoto told reporters that he was deprived of food and forced to bark and walk like a dog whenever he wanted something to eat.
In 1985, the JRA leader was released in exchange for an Israeli army officer captured in Lebanon. He then spent 12 years living in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley before being arrested with four Red Army colleagues in February 1997.
Lebanese police hit a student while breaking up a demonstration by about 300 people protesting the expulsion from Lebanon of four Japanese Red Army members
(photo: AFP)
During its 15-year-long civil war, Lebanon was a favourite hideout for many radical groups, especially those sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. But after the war, Japan reportedly put tremendous pressure on Lebanon to hand over the JRA guerrillas in return for financial aid badly needed in the war-torn country. The Lebanese authorities charged the five JRA leaders with forging travel documents to enter Lebanon and sentenced them to three years in prison.
Two months ago, Lebanese State Prosecutor Adnan Addoum refused an extradition request by Japan and said that Beirut was looking for a third country to host them.
According to informed Japanese sources, the four handed over to Tokyo on Friday may not have been involved in major attacks themselves, but the Japanese government hopes that their arrest will lead to information on the whereabouts of seven other JRA exiles, including the group's 54-year-old female leader, Fusako Shigenobu.
How exactly the deal went through between the Lebanese government and the Jordanian monarchy is still shrouded in secrecy, with officials from each country denying responsibility. Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss has categorically denied a deal between Lebanon and Tokyo, or that there have been any Japanese promises of financial aid.
Hoss said on Sunday that the government made the decision to deport the four JRA members to Jordan only after receiving assurances that they would be admitted to Amman on a two-month visa. He added that his government had copies of the passports of the four prisoners with Jordanian visas stamped on them.
The Jordanian government, however, continues to insist that it was unaware that the militants were scheduled to arrive in Amman, denying any involvement in an agreement with Japan.
"We were surprised by their arrival, and they left for an unknown destination after we refused to allow them to enter Jordan," claimed Jordanian Information Minister Saleh Qalab on Friday. "We considered them transit passengers."
Upon their arrival in Amman, the four JRA members were immediately handed over to Japanese diplomats. Political sources in Lebanon assert that the Jordanians surrendered the militants in return for a promise by Japan to help the monarchy in its drive to write off some of its foreign debts. They argue that the presence of Japanese diplomats and the Russian plane at Amman's airport negates any possibility that the Jordanian government was unaware of the prisoners' arrival.
Omayya Abboud, a Lebanese woman who married JRA member Adachi less than a month ago during a highly-publicised wedding ceremony at Roumieh prison, only heard of her husband's fate when he was already on his way to Jordan.
"It was a calculated conspiracy and the government knew how to play it; but legally speaking, the Lebanese government did not hand them over, the Jordanians did," said the four JRA members' lawyer Beshara Abi Saad.
Hoss's government has also been sharply criticised by the Lebanese media for the harsh treatment and beating of Lebanese youths who demonstrated in front of the premier's house to protest the deportation of the four JRA members.
While Japanese officials expressed satisfaction over retrieving members of what they call a terrorist organisation, they expressed regret over Lebanon's decision to grant political asylum to Okamoto. Israel reacted similarly, criticising the asylum decision.
