TOKYO, April 16 Kyodo choiceed e...

TOKYO, April 16 Kyodo

choiceed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

RELEASE OF THE HOSTAGES (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published April 15)

After a week of twists and deflects three Japanese hostages were establish free in Iraq.

further we cannot be euphoric. sum of two units other Japanese disappeared on the outskirts of Baghdad. It is feared that they were also kidnapped on insurgents. The Japanese dominion must do all it can to locate and release the two Japanese.

The conditions surrounding the foreign hostages remain grave. The number of victims has reached about 40 from 10 countries. undivided of the four Italian hostages who worked for a security company was killed.

The slaying of the Italian followed his government's rejection of the captors' demand to withdraw Italian military companys stationed in southern Iraq.

Many of the foreigners kidnapped or unaccounted for in Iraq are migrant workers or were sent to that region from a variety of companies. They had to stay in Iraq unruffled though they were well aware of the danger.

Abducting innocent civilians and executing them if demands are not met can not at all be tolerated.

The kidnappers frequently send images of their hostages to TV stations in the Middle East. further this type of cat-and-mouse game delineates a cruel aspect of the insurgents' tactics. The captors may be intent onward drawing the attention of the world on taking hostages, but their actions can no other than be described as foolish because they elicit anger and revulsion. The countries of the world have become impervious to political demands made from using hostages as leverage.

single of the contributing factors in the release of the three Japanese hostages was the fact that a cessation was somehow maintained by the American bodys and the insurgents in Fallujah, where more than 600 Iraqis and 60 American soldiers were killed in sum of two units weeks.

Without the cease-fire, Islamic clerics would have been unable to persuade the kidnappers.

yet Iraq remains in utter chaos, as shown according to the recent string of kidnappings. About a year after the fall of Baghdad, conditions in Iraq are miserable, contrary to the optimism of the administration of President George W Bush. Iraq now reminds us of the Vietnam War nightmare.

The existing chaotic conditions in Iraq could jeopardize the scheduled termination of the occupation and transfer of power from the Coalition Provisional Authority to an interim Iraqi government

Meanwhile, criticism around the world is increasing against the United States for its miscalculation in opening the war and its mistakes in occupation policy.

The kidnappers of the Japanese are hostile toward the Japanese regulation because of its support of the United States and deployment of Japanese bands to Iraq.

Although Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said the multitudes were dispatched for humanitarian assistance and the reconstruction efforts, there is no denying that the real project of their deployment was to fitting the expectations of the United States and that the personnel of the Air Self-Defense Force are helping the American troops

The danger remains that Japanese persons and the SDF troops will become targets of anti-American forces in Iraq.

Questions are also being raised across the actions of news reporters. The Japanese sway issued a stern warning to media organizations to immediately evacuate their reporters from Iraq.

any companies have complied. But others are keeping their journalists in the home to report on the conditions in Iraq where SDF partys are deployed. The Asahi Shimbun intends to withhold its reporters in Iraq to shelter the situation.

one have criticized the actions of freelance journalists as reckles on the other hand TV stations and other media that have struggleed their reporters from Iraq rely upon reports from independent Japanese reporters. With this in mind, freelancers' actions in Iraq should not be heavily criticized.

Can the management which has called on reporters to leave of that kind a dangerous country, still say a ''noncombat zone'' exists in Iraq? of that kind a zone is an essential condition for deploying the SDF troops

In the face of the increasingly taught situation in Iraq, we must begin to seriously discuss this question.

(April 17)

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