WORLD / Asia-Pacific
Abe apologises for WW2 sex slaves
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-03-26 15:21
Former South Korean comfort women, who were forced to become sex slaves
by Japanese soldiers during World War II, chant anti-Japanese slogans at
a protest in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul March 7, 2007.
[Reuters]
TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, under fire abroad for denying
government involvement in forcing women to serve as wartime sex slaves,
said on Monday he was "apologising here and now as the prime minister".
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Abe said earlier this month there was no proof Japan's government or army
kidnapped women to work as "comfort women", as the wartime sex slaves are
known in Japan.
He has also said he stood by a 1993 apology known as the Kono Statement
that acknowledged official involvement in the brothels. But he has said
there would be no new apology even if U.S. lawmakers adopted a resolution
seeking one.
"I am apologising here and now as the prime minister, and it is as stated
in the Kono Statement," Abe told a parliamentary committee in response to
a question by an opposition lawmaker.
"As I frequently say, I feel sympathy for the people who underwent
hardships, and I apologise for the fact that they were placed in this
situation at the time," Abe told the committee.
The prime minister's earlier comments denying official involvement in
kidnapping women, mostly Asian, to work in the wartime brothels have
angered Seoul and risked straining ties with Washington, where U.S.
Congressman Michael Honda has introduced a resolution calling for Japan
to make an unambiguous apology for the suffering of the sex slaves.
No vote on the resolution, which Abe has criticised as full of errors, is
expected until May, after Abe visits Washington for talks with U.S.
President George W. Bush.
The Asian Women's Fund, set up in 1995 and partly funded by the Japanese
government, has provided the "comfort women" with 2 million yen ($17,000)
each in compensation and medical support, along with a letter of apology
signed by previous prime ministers.
But many of the women have refused to accept the money, saying the
Japanese government itself should provide the compensation in recognition
of its responsibility.
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