No to Unfair Suppression of Activities Against the War on Iraq!We Never Stop Our Appeal Against Their Dispatch to SDF Personnels!

In an early morning on 27 February, 2004, we Tachikawa SDF Watching TentVillage was totally suppressed due to our "opposition against the war onIraq". Three were arrested, and six locations such as our office andprovate houses were raided. This is a serious damage against a smallgrass-roots organisation against war.

The warrant said that the delivery of anti-war leaflets to the SDFquarter on 17 January, 2004 deserved trespassing. With this, any postingof leaflet advertisement in mail boxes can be subjected to thesuppression. This means that Japan has started to suppress the people'svoices against war and revealed its violent nature as a nationdispatching its forces.

The leaflet we delivered in the SDF quarter on 17 January was titled"Dear SDF personnels and their family members. Objection to yourdispatch to Iraq! Please think again and say no to the war!" We havecriticized the background of the dispatch in the morass of the warwithout cause, saying, "Those who order with a calculator on one handare always safe, while those who are ordered and targeted at by attacksare always afraid of danger, exposed to harsh stress, and are sometimesforcibly sweetened with money".

The personnels are struggling to accept the situation, saying, "This isa mission", This is for the nation "This is an order from asuperior officer". On the other hand, they suffer from such feelings as"Is this war right?", "I may be troubled with trauma if I killed Iraqipeople". In the past, Japan wiped out all voices against war andindoctrinated children with the myth of the God Nation for the worshipof the Emperor, so that it pushed for the devastating war of aggression.Only if SDF personnels can think seriously about how to act, such societyis healthy. If we can raise our voices against their dispatch anddiscuss with them, the society has resiliency from a wrong policy. We dorefuse the "home front" that has no human rights or freedom of speech.

The Japanese Government is misleading the public opinion, saying, "Thereis no choice but to support the SDF in Iraq" by covering up the truth withchoplogics in which the constitution and international law are bothignored and by creating faits accomplis. Such a big power is what we themovement against the war on Iraq are facing. We need to refute suchchoplogics and struggle to rectify the mistakes of the faits accomplisone by one based on history and the current situation. Important hereare the power of words, freedom of speech, and communications with theSDF personnels and their family members.

We shall overcome the preventive suppression by the authority to takeback our comrades who were arrested, and fight to the end against thewar on Iraq together with the people around Japan and all around theworld. We will never stop our appeal to the SDF personnels and theirfamily members.

Tachikawa SDF Watching Tent Village28 February 20042-12-10-504 Fujimi-cho, Tachikawa-shi, TokyoPhone: +81-42-525-9036Fax: +81-42-524-9863