Protest prompts more opposition to Futenma plan

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Protest prompts more opposition to Futenma plan
By Hana Kusumoto, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, November 12, 2009

TOKYO — Okinawa leaders urged U.S. and Japanese government officials on Tuesday to scrap plans to construct a new U.S. Marine Corps air facility on Okinawa after thousands protested against the plan during a rally Sunday on Okinawa.

The mayors of Ginowan and Naha and Okinawa prefectural assemblyman Yonekichi Shinzato visited the Ministry of Defense and U.S. Embassy to deliver a resolution adopted at the rally, they said during a news conference in Tokyo after the visit.

They said the resolution demands that a 2006 bilateral agreement to realign U.S. troops in Japan be scrapped and called for the immediate closure of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in the middle of urban Ginowan. They said it also denounced plans to move Futenma units and assets to a proposed new airfield at Camp Schwab and demanded that the Marine units move off the island or even out of Japan.

The resolution urged Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to keep his promise to review the 2006 agreement, noting that he did not waver or give in when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates visited and demanded that Japan move forward with the plan, they said.

“The new administration must openly insist on hearing the voices of the Okinawa residents, not giving in to the pressure from the U.S. but negotiating equally in Japan-U.S. talks when meeting with President Obama on Nov. 13 for the Japan-U.S. summit,” the resolution stated.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66024