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Dear comrades and friends all over the world,
Fusako Shigenobu, the leader of JRA; Japanese
Red Army, was arrested Wednesday November
8 morning on a street in Osaka (center of
Kansai region), Japan. Police then transferred
her to MPD (the Metropolitan Police Department)
headquarters in Tokyo for questioning. She
is now under investigation in MPD and the
Tokyo District Public Prosecuters Office.
Even if we are different from her political
lines, we strongly condemn the arrest and
the following oppresson by police as evil.
Now police and public security authorities
try to crack down on her supporters and other
activists.
Free Shigenobu Now!
Stop oppression to alleged JRA supporters!
November 12, 2000
Hiroshi Tsumura (IEG: "Kokusaisyugi"
Internationalism Editing Group)
October Society / 203 Nisigahara Residence
1-1-1 Nishigahara Kita-ku Tokyo Japan 114-0024
phone/faxF03-3576-0748
e-mail:ieg@ngy.1st.ne.jp
URL:http://www.ngy.1st.ne.jp/~ieg
See the following articles,
and please circulate this mail to those who
are concerned.
*A Brief History Of Japan's Red Army
December 1958: Communist League (CL,and also
widely acknowledgeed as BUND) founded based
on militant student movement led by Zengakuren
(the All-Japan Federation of Student Association).
It was the first major breakaway from Japan
Communisit Party (JCP), and Stalinist orthodoxy.
September 1966: Communist League reestablised
through realignment process among splited
factions since the break up of BUND after
big fights against AMPO (Japan-U.S. military
alliance) in 1960
August 1969: In upsurge of AMPO struggles,
Sekigun (Red Army) faction, led by Takaya
Shiomi and mainly based on Kansai region,
emerged from violent factional fights among
Communist Leage in order to be ready for
armed uprising and civil war. Fusako Shigenobu
is an active and leading student member of
Sekigun faction.
March 1970: Group of Sekigun faction (so-called
"Yodo-Go" Group), led by Takamaro
Tamiya, haijack Japan Airlines plane "Yodo-Go"
over Mt.Fuji and fly to North Korea in order
to found international bases for offensive
armed uprising in Japan and simultaneous
worldwide revolution.
February 1971: Having the same purpose as
"Yodo-Go" Group, Group of Sekigun
faction led by Fusako Shigenobu enters Lebanon
and name themselves at first "Arab Red
Army" and at last "Japanese Red
Army" (JRA). JRA links up with Palestinian
guerrillas, in particular, Popular Front
for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) there.
July 1971: In Japan, Sekigun faction and
JCP (revolutionary left) found Rengo-Sekigun
(Allied Red Army). In February 1972, a band
of Allied Red Army raids a lodge and gunfights
with police but after their arrest it is
exposed that they have killed about a dozen
of own comrades.
May 1972: A JRA command attacks the international
airport outside Tel Aviv, Israel, killing
24 people, injuring 80 others.
July 1973: JRA and Palestinian guerrillas
hijack Japan Airlines plane over the Netherlands.
Passengers and crew released in Libya, where
hijackers blow up the plane.
February 1974: A JRA command and Palestinian
guerrillas blow up oil tanks of Shell in
Singapore in solidarity with Vietnam revolution.
September 1974: A JRA command seizes French
Embassy in The Hague, and French ambassador
freed in exchange for jailed Red Army members.
August 1975: A JRA command raids building
housing U.S., Swedish, Japanese and Canadian
embassies in Kuala Lumpur. Fifty-three hostages
liberated in exchange for five jailed Red
Army and radical anarchist (East Asia Anti-Japan
Armed Front) members.
September 1977: A JRA command hijacks JAL
plane over India. Japanese government frees
six imprisoned members of JRA and radical
anarchist and pay $6 million in ransom.
April 1988: A JRA command bombs U.S. military
recreational club in Naples, Italy, killing
five.
February 1997: Lebanon detains five Red Army
members, including a leader.
March 1997: Lebanon grants detained leader
Kozo Okamoto political asylum, the four others
are deported to Japan. Three are arrested
upon arrival.
November 8 2000: Red Army founder Fusako
Shigenobu arrested in Osaka (center of Kansai
region), Japan.
*Wednesday, November 8, 2000 (Based on Daily Yomiuri Nov.9)
Fusako Shigenobu, 55, the leader of JRA;
Japanese Red Army, was arrested Wednesday
November 8 morning on a street in Takatsuki,
Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Police arrested
her in front of a hotel where she stayed,
took her to Takatsuki Police station and
then transferred her later Wednesday to the
Metropolitan Police Department headquarters
in Tokyo for questioning. In spite of heavy
police guards, she showed her fighting spirits,
raising both hands to reveal her handcuffs
and making a thumbs-up sign .
While being transferred to the MPD, she raised
her thumbs several times at reporters' camerasfrom
inside of a patrol wagon and also continued
to do so after her arrival at JR Tokyo Station.
From time to time, she smiled, saying, "I
will fight and keep on going."
Shigenobu was a member of Red Army faction
of "Kyosansyugisha-domei"(Commuinst
League; Bund) in 1969 and moved to Lebanon
in February 1971, founding the radical left-wing
group there. She has been a leading figure
of JRA, registered a marriage to Takeshi
Okudaira, a fellow Red Army member who died
during an attack in Tel Aviv.
JRA commandos armed with guns and grenades
occupied the French Embassy in The Hague
Sept.13, 1974, takeing the French ambassador
and 10 other embassy officials hostage during
the attack. Police readily jumped to the
conclusion that she was masterminding the
attack and so arrested her.
JRA conducted an operation at Lod airport
in Tel Aviv in 1972, hijacked a Japan Airline
flight bound for Paris, forcing it to land
in Dhaka in 1977 , etc. JRA was originally
based in Beirut, but moved to easten Lebanon
after Palestinian guerrillas withdrew from
the city.
In an interview with a Japanese newspaper
at the height of the Red Army's activities
in 1975, she vowed to devote herself to the
group's revolutionary cause, saying its commmitment
would remain solid regadless of whether it
had one member or 100.
*Thursday, November 9, 2000 (Base on Daily Yomiuri Nov.10)
Fusako Shigenobu, arrested yesterday morning
in Osaka and then handed over to the Metropolitan
Police Department on suspicion of hostage
taking in the French Embassy siege in The
Hague in 1974, was served a fresh arrest
warrant on suspicion of attempted murder,
also in connection with her involvement in
the French Embassy attack.
According to the sources, two passports confiscated
from an apartment where Shigenobu was staying
in Osaka, indicate that she had entered and
left Japan several times since the arrest
by Lebanese authorities of five Japanese
Red Army members, including Haruo Wako, 52,
in 1977. She often traveled on a route from
Beijing to Japan via Macau and Hong Kong
for undreground activities. The passport
records showed that Shigenobu took this route
when she last entered Japan in late September.
Although MPD investigators have questioned
Shigenobu on the purpose of her time in Japan
and Beijing, she has maintained silence over
the allegations.
*Friday, November 10, 2000 (Based on Daily Yomiuri Nov.11)
MPD, the Metropolitan Police Department,
sent merely papers on Fusako Shigenobu, arrested
Japanese Red Army leader to the Tokyo District
Public Prosecuters Office on this morning.
Although sending a suspect to the prosecutors
office normally involves delivering the person,
as well as papers pertainig to the case,
prosecuters visited the MPD's headquarters
rather than police took her to the office.
In the Shigenobu's case, MPD followed a special
procedure because they were afraid of any
attempt by members or supporters of the JRA
to rescue her.
MPD, in cooperation with the Osaka prefectural
police, try to determine whether organizations
or activists supporting the JRA helped Shigenobu
to enter and stay Japan. Police have so far
confiscated two laptop computers, dozens
of floppy disks and seven cellular phones
from her and an apartment where she was hiding
out in Osaka. Examining in an attempt to
learn more about the JRA leader's activities
in Japan, police suspect that she was in
close contact with a dozen of JRA supporters
in Japan.
Police also suspect that she has attended
meetings in Japan organized by a nationwide
network of JRA sympathizers, visiting Japan
on several occasions since around 1997, in
order to revive JRA supporter groups. They
say that Shigenobu was plannig to attend
a meeting organized by JRA supporters in
Osaka on the day of her arrest.
Shigenobu submitted nine articles to the
Jinmin Shimbun (People's Newspaper) pubulished
by Osaka-based radical left activists since
September 1999. Though she claimed she had
written them in Lebanon, police suspect some
of them were actually written in Japan.
One of articles Shigenobu submitted recently
titled "Middle East Report" was
published on Oct.17 In this article, the
JRA leader cites comments made by Palestinians
(PFLP, DFLP, etc.) on the recent escalation
of violence in the Middle East.This is a
good report which make clear ongoing situation
over Palestine & Israel and educate Japanese
people.
Police are currently analyzing underground
activities which have been attempting to
revive a domestic network of political sympathizers
of the Japanese Red Army especially in Kansai
region (Osaka, Kyoto and close prefecters
to them) by enlisting new supporters since
the mid-1990s.
The police suspect the new recruits may have
played an important role in assisting Shigenobu
to carry out recent activities in Japan by
providing her with cellular phones, hideouts
and documents needed to obtain passports
so she could enter the country.
According to police, for the duration of
the time Shigenobu was in hiding in Osaka,
supporters of the JRA in Kansai were very
active. For public security authorities,
the new recruits are harder to track down
than their older counterparts, who have previous
arrest records or are well known to police.
Therefore, Jinmin Shimbun and other alleged
suppoters have been targets to be searched
by the police. We are strogly against such
oppression and demand to free Shigenobu immediately!
*Thursday, November 16, 2000 (Based on Daily Yomiuri Nov.17)
Fusako Shigenobu, the leader of JRA; Japanese
Red Army who was arrested on Nov.9, told
a court Thursday Nov. 16 that she expected
to be arrested after returning to Japan but
had hoped to have until next spring to complete
her preparation.
"I would have been ready to be arrested
by next spring when the cherry blossomes
fall," she told the Tokyo District Court,
where the reasons for her detention were
made public as requested by her lawyers.
The Code of Criminal Procedure stipulate
a court must hold an open session to give
the reasons for any detention at the request
of defence lawyers, during which all parties
can present their cases.
In the Nov.16 hearing at the Tokyo District
Court that was held to put on record the
reason for Shigenobu's detention, she apologized
for the JRA's "unintentional" infliction
of physical and emotional damage on ordinary
people in the attacks carried out in the
organization's name.
She also said, however, that she is proud
of the JRA's struggles in Palestine and that
its daily demonization as "terrorist"
organization is not a true picture of the
organization.
Shigenobu, who was arrested on suspicion
of involvement in the siege of the French
Embassy in The Hague in September 1974, said
she will reveal her role in the affair during
her trial, denying the allegations. She was
on the MPD (Metropolitan Police Department)
international wanted list only in connection
with the 1974 siege, but she did not carry
out the attack on the embassy and her involvement
in other JRA operations was not clear.
Police seized many written documents, including
platforms for People's Revolutionary Party,
floppy disks and passports from the apartement
Shigenobu had used as a hideout in Nishinari
Ward, Osaka.
She used several bogus passports to travel
between Japan and Beijing, Macau and Hong
Kong eight times over the past three years.
The overall duration of her stay in Japan
is believed to have been longer than one
years during that period.
Regarding her purpose in returning to Japan,
she said, "I wanted to create a situation
in which I could fight under my real name."
She also said that she knew she would be
arrested in Japan but that she wanted to
become active in her home country ,and wanted
to make good use of her oversea experience
in Japan and the world, She said she wants
to improve global society and Japan even
from behaind bars.
*Tuesday, November 21, 2000 (Based on Japan Times Nov.22)
Pair arrested for harboring Red Army founder
Shigenobu
OSAKA -- Police on Tuesday arrested two supporters
of Japanese Red Army founder Fusako Shigenobu
for allegedly harboring the fugitive while
in Japan. Akiyoshi Kataoka, a 45-year-old
senior high school teacher, and Tadashi Oga,
53, who is self-employed, are alleged members
of a support group for the Lebanon-based
JRA.
They are suspected of providing a rented
apartment in Osaka's Nishinari Ward as a
hideout for Shigenobu, 55, who was arrested
earlier this month in Osaka Prefecture after
having been on an international wanted list
for about 30 years.
Both suspects were remaining silent
Beginning with the two arrests, the joint
investigative team of the Metropolitan Police
Department and Osaka Prefectural Police plan
to question Shigenobu's suspected supporters
in order to determine her movements while
she was a fugitive.
Investigators believe Kataoka is a senior
member of a Kansai-based support organization
for the Red Army, while Oga - a one-time
member of a leftist radical group -- became
involved in the support activities several
years ago. They suspect Kataoka also served
as a contact for Red Army fugitives hiding
overseas.
Officers searched the homes of the two suspects
and seven other locations in Osaka Prefecture
for evidence Tuesday.
They also searched 41 locations in Tokyo
and nine prefectures in connection with an
investigation into two passports that were
found in the apartment.
Both passports, which were issued by the
Japanese government, carry Shigenobu's photo.
One was issued in 1997 to a woman named Yoshida,
while the other was issued earlier this year
to a woman named Yamada, police said.
Shigenobu is believed to have used them to
enter and leave Japan over the past few years
as they show records of eight round trips
between Japan and other parts of Asia taken
since December 1997. She used Kansai International
Airport for most of her journeys to and from
Japan.
Police said Yoshida is a relative of one
of Shigenobu's key supporters. Investigators
plan to question her and Yamada on a voluntary
basis to determine why Shigenobu was in possession
of the documents.
Shigenobu was taken into custody Nov. 8 as
she emerged with two men from a hotel in
Takatsuki, Osaka and subsequently arrested
on suspicion of masterminding the Japanese
Red Army's seizure of the French Embassy
in The Hague on Sept. 13, 1974. On Nov. 9,
she was served a fresh arrest warrant for
alleged attempted murder in connection with
the incident.
According to sources close to the case, investigators
have called on Red Army members currently
in prison or on trial to respond to fresh
police questioning regarding the Hague incident,
but they appear to have refused to testify.
By police, Shigenobu is believed to be a
key figure in a series of international actions
in the 1970s and has been one of eight high-profile
Japanese leftists wanted for decades.
A native of Tokyo, Shigenobu in 1969 became
an active member of the Red Army Faction,
a radical leftist student group formed the
same year and advocating simultaneous world
revolution through armed uprising.
She entered Beirut in 1971 to assist the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Shortly after traveling to Lebanon, she organized
the Japanese Red Army as an independent,
foreign-based group to effect world revolution.
*Monday, November 27, 2000 (Based on Daily News Nov.28)
Ex-Red Army member denies Shigenobu commanded
siege
There is No reason for her detention!@Free
Shigenobu Now!
The 1974 siege of the French Embassy in the
Netherlands by the Japanese Red Army was
not master-minded by Fusako Shigenobu, the
founder of JRA, as police had believed, but
by the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (PFLP), a former Red Army member
has told investigators.
Investigative sources said Sunday that during
questioning by prosecutors, the member, identified
only as a 51-year-old man, denied the alleged
role played by Shigenobu in the siege and
said it was masterminded by the PFLP, believed
to have been involved in numerous guerilla
attacks in the 1970s.
Shigenobu, the top Red Army commander, was
arrested Nov. 8 in Osaka Prefecture after
being placed on an international wanted list
for her alleged role in the French Embassy
siege. In September 1974, three members of
the Red Army seized the French Embassy in
The Hague and took the ambassador and 10
other staff hostage.
They demanded, and eventually obtained, the
release of 11 Red Army members captured by
the French law enforcement authorities while
traveling with fake travel documents.
The 51-year-old man is one of the 11 members
released in exchange for the siege hostages.
He is believed to have been involved in the
January 1974 attack on an oil refinery in
Singapore in solidarity with Vietnam revolutionary
war.
The man told investigators that he left the
Red Army group in February 1986 because he
"could no longer follow the militant,
hard-line approach," the sources said.
He then turned himself in to the Metropolitan
Police Department, the sources said.
After being convicted and serving 16 months
in prison, he has been living in his hometown
in Toyama Prefecture on the Sea of Japan
coast, according to the sources.
Shigenobu was arrested on suspicion of illegal
detention and attempted murder in the embassy
siege. Her detention period runs out this
Thursday.
Prosecutors requested help with their investigations
into Shigenobu's case from several Red Army
members serving prison terms, the sources
said, but they all refused to cooperate.
Therefore, there is no reason for her detention.
Free Shigenobu Immediately!