Japanese anger grows over alleged rape

TOKYO - Japanese leaders are warning of an angry public reaction, as the United States Air Force continues to hold a serviceman suspected of raping a Japanese woman despite repeated requests that he be handed over to local police.

"I hope the United States, understanding emotions here, will make an appropriate decision quickly," the Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, said today - five days after the alleged rape on the southern island of Okinawa.

A warrant was issued on Monday for the arrest of the suspect, 24-year old Air Force sergeant Timothy Woodland.

But so far the US military authorities have made no response to increasingly impatient requests for custody to be transferred to Japanese authorities.

"We ask the United States to swiftly hand over the American suspect," Gen Nakatani, Japan's defence minister, said in a phone call to the Pentagon yesterday. "We ask Washington to take a political decision so as to quickly solve this case. If we prolong solving the crime, this could lead us to a more serious problem."

The foreign minister, Makiko Tanaka, made the same request to the American secretary of state, Colin Powell.

President George W. Bush will take part in a decision on whether to hand the suspect over to Japanese police, Mr Powell told Tanaka in a telephone call.

Mr Koizumi's government is terrified of a repeat of the events of 1995 when tens of thousands of Okinawans demonstrated against the US presence on their island, after three American servicemen gang raped a 12-year old girl.

Last week's alleged rape involved a woman in her 20s and early reactions were relatively subdued.

But yesterday there were signs of anger at what many in Okinawa regard as the arrogant attitude of the American military command. Okinawa's prefectural assembly passed a unanimous motion calling for Sergeant Woodland's immediate handover, and demanding the revision of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) which gives special legal privileges to American servicemen in Japan.

- INDEPENDENT