Japan steps up islands' security

david.zh

Thursday, March 25, 2004 Posted: 10:52 PM EST (0352 GMT) <!-- /date --><BR>


<B style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Japan's Coast Guard on Friday stepped up security around a remote island chain claimed by both Japan and China, as Tokyo said it would try to prevent more activist visits from inflaming a territorial dispute between the two countries. </B>


Coast Guard spokesman Masayoshi Iramina said vessels guarding the uninhabited islands were on heightened alert, but refused to say how many more ships had been added to regular patrols.


The measures came as Japanese authorities continued questioning seven Chinese activists arrested on Wednesday for an allegedly illegal visit to Uotsuri, one of the islands in the Japanese-controlled archipelago known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan.


The China Federation for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, which sent the first batch of activists, said it planned another trip to the island on Sunday with more than 30 people.


Japan's National Public Safety Commission chief, Kiyoko Ono, said the Chinese activists violated immigration laws and stressed that authorities would prevent any others, including Japanese, from reaching the island.


On Thursday, police stopped a Japanese right-wing extremist group from leaving for the island from nearby Okinawa.


"Our government disapproves of landings by Japanese," Ono said. "It goes without saying that we will reject foreign visitors, too."


Japan took control of the islands, located between Taiwan and Japan, when it defeated China in an 1895 war.


The United States had jurisdiction over them after World War II until 1972, when they were handed back to Japan. China says its claims date back centuries.


The century-old territorial spat intensified Thursday as Tokyo and Beijing issued competing claims of ownership over the island. Beijing called the arrests "a challenge to Chinese sovereignty."


Tokyo said the activists trespassed on Japanese land despite warnings to stay away. The Chinese activists left the southeastern province of Zhejiang on a trawler Wednesday, and reached the disputed island aboard smaller boats.


The activists said they wanted to draw attention to China's claim over the island chain.


China demanded Thursday that Japan release "without any conditions" the seven Chinese activists.


Japanese media reports, citing police officials, said the Chinese activists were expected to be handed over to prosecutors as early as Friday, and later deported by immigration authorities.


Police, however, declined to comment.


Meanwhile, protesters in Beijing and Hong Kong denounced the arrests and burned Japanese flags, prompting a strong protest from Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi.


"The flag burning was extremely regrettable," Kawaguchi told reporters.


On Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he hoped the diplomatic repercussions of the incident would be limited.

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