Congressman calls on Obama to seek convention to ban wartime slavery of women

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, July 30 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. congressman Thursday called on the Barack
Obama administration to propose an international convention to terminate wartime
sexual abuse of women.

Speaking to a forum on "War and Women's Rights" held at George Washington
University here, Rep. Eni Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa) said, "Now is the time
for the State Department to make the international convention law to forever ban
and prohibit this kind of thing" in close consultations with members of the
United Nations.
Faleomavaega, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee's subcommittee on
Asia, the Pacific and Global Environment, was referring to hundreds of thousands
of Korean women forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers before and
during World War II.
"This is the time beyond pointing fingers and we are beyond demanding the
government of Japan apologize for what happened," he told the forum organized to
mark the second anniversary of the adoption of a resolution by the House in July
2007. The resolution calls on the Japanese government to unequivocally
acknowledge responsibility and apologize for sexual enslavement of the "comfort
women."
Historians say more than 200,000 women fell victim to the Imperial Japanese Army,
which coaxed or forced young girls to work at frontline brothels.
"Whether the Japanese government likes it or not, this is the fact," Faleomavaega
said. "This is what happened in World War II. They say they apologized. Fifty
times and sixty times. It doesn't matter how many times they apologize, that's
not the issue."
"We should establish an international convention ... and this should be
considered as a crime against humanity," he said. "It should be prosecuted in the
highest level of justice in the world."
In a message to the forum, Rep. Michael Honda (D-CA) called for continued efforts
to press for Japan's apology.
"Two years after the passage of H. Res. 121 and with fewer than 300 comfort women
alive today, we must continue our effort to provide long-overdue justice to the
resilient survivors, who are counting on our country's leadership," said Honda,
who introduced the resolution in 2007.
"Many of you have taken a passionate role in advocating on behalf of nearly
200,000 women in Asia, euphemistically known as comfort women, who suffered
unimaginable dehumanization organized by the Japanese Imperial Army during
Japan's colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands," he
said.
hdh@yna.co.kr
(END)