Protesters demand a reversal of peace-leader Hiroji Yamashiro’s sentence at demonstration in front of the Japanese Embassy in Washington D.D.
Demonstrators protesting against the guilty verdict handed down to Hiroji Yamashiro as well as Henoko base construction. March 23, Washington D.C.
March 25, 2018 Ryukyu Shimpo
By Washington Special Correspondent Yukiyo Zaha
Washington – The Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases, which is based in the U.S. and composed of various peace and environmental protection groups, staged a demonstration in front of the Japanese Embassy in Washington D.C. calling for the reversal of a guilty verdict handed down to Hiroji Yamashiro, head of the Okinawa Peace Action Center, who was given a suspended sentence for “forcible obstruction of business,” from his protests against new base construction in Henoko, Nago.
The demonstration protested against the new base construction as well.
The demonstration included 15 protesters from groups including Okinawa Peace Appeal, a citizens group of Okinawans living in America, Veterans for Peace (VFP), made up of ex-military members, and CODEPINK, a female-centered peace group.
The group protested carrying signs that read messages such as, “Close the Bases!” and “We will not be silenced!”
The protest letter submitted to the Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. said of the Yamashiro cases’ verdict, “It is a sign of repression by the authority against the anti-bases movement by intimidating and putting pressure on the people not to join the activities by showing them the risk of the arrest and indictment.
It attempts to hide the true crime of progressing militarization, despite the fact that it destroys the environment, ignores the democratic will of Okinawan people, and the base puts their lives in danger.
Bahman Azad, the representative for the Coalition, said, “Increased crime and accidents caused by the existence of these bases is a worldwide problem.
This verdict will not silence us, but further the movement and lead us to the next step.”
(English translaton by T&CT and Sam Grieb)
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