UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, March 7, 1996
7A
Japan convicts U.S. soldiers
Prison sentences considered harsh by Japanese terms
The Associated Press
NAHA, Okinawa — Three U.S. servicemen were convicted in the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl and sentenced to 6 1/2 to seven years in prison in a case that became a symbol of America's controversial presence on this southern island.
The verdict, handed down by a panel of three judges at the Naha District Court, followed six months of protests against the U.S. presence. Support for American troops on Okinawa is at one of its lowest points since World War II.
None of the three U.S. Gls — Navy Seaman Marcus Gill, of Woodville, Texas; Marine Pfc. Rodrico Harp, of Griffin, Ga.; and Marine Pfc. Kendrick Ledet, of Waycross, Ga. — showed any emotion when the sentences were read.
"We respect each other's legal
seven years and Ledet received 6 1/2 years. The sentences, tough by Japanese standards, will be served in Yokosuka Prison, just south of Tokyo.
Gill and Harp were sentenced to
processes."
U. S. embassystatement
day, Gill said that he had raped the girl, while Ledet and Harp said they had helped abduct her, but only because Gill bullied them into joining him.
The court, however, ruled that blood stains from the victim that were found on Harp's underwear proved he also raped her, and he was given the same sentence as Gill.
The judges concluded that Ledet was unable to go through with the rape after realizing how young the victim was, and he was therefore given a slightly lighter sentence.
In a statement, the judges said the
crime was carried out "systematically," violated the victim's human dignity and caused her extreme physical and psychological harm
The U.S. Embassy in a state ment refused to comment on the ruling and said an American military observer was present at all the proceedings and reported no problems contrary to U.S. or Japanese judicial practices.
"Japan is a nation under the rule of law, just as the United States is a nation under the rule law," the statement said. "We respect each other's legal processes."
Prosecutors said the three forced the girl into their rented car on the night of Sept. 4. They allegedly beat and bound her as Gill drove to a deserted road amid fields of sugar cane.
The girl was raped there, and abandoned. Still bleeding, she wandered to the nearest house and tearfully called home. Gill, Ledet and Harp were arrested by military police two days later.
Record numbers of Okinawans have rallied against the heavy U.S. military presence here since the rape. The largest protest, held in October, drew more than 60,000 people, many of whom shouted demands for the immediate withdrawal of the 27,000 U.S. troops.
Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota, a longstanding opponent of the U.S. bases on Okinawa, has called for the troops' removal by 2015, and his government has drawn up detailed plans for the departure.
"Some American troops still believe Okinawa is U.S. territory," he said in an interview earlier this week. "Okinawa is ours, not yours."
Adm. Joseph Pruheer, commander of the U.S. Pacific forces, said last week that he expects no change in the number of troops in Japan — 47,000 — or on Okinawa in the near future.
Israel's grip strangling peace
Soldiers re-enter the West Bank
The Associated Press
AL FAWAR, West Bank — Israeli soldiers forced Palestinians caught breaking curfew yesterday to sit for hours on a curb inside a barbed-wire barrier.
"Head down, hands behind your back!" one soldier bellowed.
Their responses were normal to Israeli occupation, said math teacher Iyyad Qawasmi, 23, peering from his balcony as soldiers patrolled below to enforce a three-
In the Al Fawar refugee camp down the road, Palestinians calmly tried to justify suicide bombings by two men from their neighborhood. The bombers killed 23 Israelis, two Americans and a Palestinian last week.
dav-old curfew.
With hostility running high on both sides, the mood on the street was as if Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin had never shaken hands at the White House.
Hunting for Muslim militants who plotted four suicide bombings during a nine-day period, Israeli soldiers were deployed into the West Bank yesterday, including areas that had been ceremoniously given to Palestinian police last fall.
Troops laid siege to the West Bank's 465 towns and villages and confined Palestinians to their communities. Jeeps blocked dusty back roads and metal spikes were laid across asphalt streets to keep back motorists.
A young Israeli officer ordered Mohammed Abu Awwad, a Palestinian Authority employee whose office handles millions of dollars in foreign aid, to get out of his car and stand in line with several other men
on the main road south of Hebron.
After inspecting Abu Awwad's identification card, the officer told him to return immediately to his village, nearby Dura.
At that point, an Israeli command car pulled alongside Abu Awwad's car, parked on the roadside.
"You have exactly 10 seconds to move or I'm going to arrest you," said the same officer he had encountered before.
Abu Awwad quickly drove off.
Israel's current crackdown, ordered in part to reassure a traumatized Israeli public, has turned many middle-of-the-road Palestinians against peacemaking and has eroded the standing of Arafat's Palestinian Authority, said Ghassan Khatib, a former Palestinian peace negotiator.
Israeli army Col. Moshe Eldad, the top liaison officer with Palestinian security forces in the West Bank, said Israel had not violated the letter
of the peace agreement in the last few days.
Traoops have stayed out of "Area A," the seven West Bank towns under full Palestinian control. They have been deployed only into "Area B," the rural areas that became quasi-autonomous last fall and make up 22 percent of the West Bank.
The agreement says that the army has overriding control of security in those areas, while Palestinian police there are in charge of public safety, Eldad said.
Eldaid said the siege would be lifted between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. starting today, to allow Palestinians to reach their jobs. He dismissed Palestinian complaints that the restrictions constituted collective punishment.
To many Palestinians who witnessed the departure of Israeli troops from most villages last fall, the siege and the renewed patrols were a step back from their goal of establishing a Palestinian state.
THE NEWS in brief
Vice president gives students reason to laugh
The Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Vice President Al Gore has heard the jokes: he's stiff, he's humorless, he's downright boring. But Gore broke them up in the Ozarks.
chairs.
He opened a speech yesterday by expressing thanks for his standing ovation — from students with no
That led to a string of vice presi-
dential one-liners:
"It's been so cold here this winter, people who don't know me better thought I was frozen stiff.
"I first started hearing all those 'stiff' jokes back when I came here the first time campaigning. It's no
secret I ran for president in 1988, although it seemed like one at the time.
"Al Gore is so boring his Secret Service code name is ... Al Gore."
"I've heard most of them by now,
but every time I hear a new one, I
always have the same reaction: Very
funny, Tipper."
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