Tokyo Calls on Moscow to Return Fishermen, Northern Territories
Ioshiaki Harada from Japan’s parliament called on Mikhail Galuzin, charge d’affairs of Russia in Japan, to release Japanese fishermen, who had been arrested in the territorial waters of Japan, along with the Northern territories. In Japan, they call Northern Territories the South Kuril Islands of Russia. Meanwhile, Japan’s embassy in Moscow said the crew might have been fishing illegally and promised to punish them in Japan should their guilt be ever determined there.
Shooting of Kissin-Maru 31 schooner by Russia’s frontier guards, which killed Japanese fisherman Mitsuhirore Morita, was again the highlight yesterday. In Tokyo, Ioshiaki Harada, chairman of the foreign affairs commission at parliament of Japan, met Russia's charge d’affairs Mikhail Galuzin to voice claims based on the principal standing of Tokyo.
Tokyo insists the South Kuril Islands along with the waters around them are the territory of Japan, so the fishermen should be released in no time. Moscow is expected to apologize, pay compensation and return Northern Territories (the Japanese name for the Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai Islands).
Galuzin rebuffed by saying “that a very sad incident happened and that neither Russian nor Japanese authorities had wished it.” But the root cause, Galuzin, reminded, was that the schooner had run into the waters of Russia without any lights or signs of identification and for purposes of poaching. “All responsibility is on those in Japan, who sent the schooner to Russia for poaching,” the diplomat summoned up.
Also on yesterday, the Japanese embassy in Moscow again urged Russia to make an apology, take actions to prevent similar incidents in future and sanction the return of the Japanese fishermen. The embassy stressed that frontier guards of Japan don’t shoot when dealing with poachers.
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All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 24, 2006
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