Page 15 - AHATA

A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 14 december 2023

She won her sexual assault case. Now she hopes the Japanese

military changes so others don’t suffer

By MARI YAMAGUCHI sense of justice.
Associated Press The case filed by Gonoi in
TOKYO (AP) — Rina Gonoi August 2021 was initially
came forward in summer dropped. In June 2022,
2022 to demand a reinves- she came forward and
tigation of the case that demanded the case be
authorities dropped nearly reinvestigated, saying the
a year earlier, saying the experience caused her to
sexual assault caused her give up her military career.
to give up her military ca- Prosecutors reopened her
reer. Now, with her court case in September that
case won and widespread year, also prompting a mil-
problems uncovered in the itary-wide investigation into
organization, she hopes Ja- sexual harassment and oth-
pan’s Self Defense Force er abuse allegations. That
will be reborn as a place same month, the Ground
where everyone can easily Self Defense Force partially
speak up against harass- acknowledged the mis-
ment. conduct and apologized,
“I could not put (the as- then fired five soldiers and
saults) behind as if nothing punished four others.
happened, and because In August, a panel of ex-
of my appreciation for the perts investigating Japan’s
Self Defense Force, I want- Rina Gonoi, former member of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Forces, prepares to attend the military and the Defense
ed them to become a bet- press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, in Ministry found widespread
ter organization,” Gonoi Tokyo. Associated Press coverups and reluctance
told reporters Wednesday among supervisors to deal
in Tokyo. work firsthand after the signed to a Fukushima unit place for both men and with the problem, and rec-
Gonoi said she had mixed March 2011 earthquake in April 2020. women, and both during ommended fundamental
feelings about speaking up and tsunami struck her Gonoi recalled service and outside training ses- improvements.
against her former work- hometown in Miyagi pre- members were treated sions. I hope there will be Then, on Tuesday, the Fuku-
place, but she was com- fecture, directly north of Fu- equally during training, but supervisors with a sense of shima District Court found
pelled to because she kushima where the disaster she often felt women were justice who can deal with three former soldiers in the
didn’t want to see anyone triggered the Daiichi Nucle- looked down upon or ver- harassment cases appro- assault case guilty of sexual
else quitting from the same ar Power Plant meltdown. bally abused outside work, priately.” indecency. The three men
pain. That was her inspiration including at parties. Gonoi said she is hopeful, argued they only tried to
As a child, she witnessed when, years later, Gonoi “I hope the Jieitai (SDF) and believes most people be funny and pleaded not
the army’s disaster relief joined the SDF and was as- becomes a pleasant work- are serving their duty with guilty.q

Thai police seize a record haul of 50 million methamphetamine

tablets near border with Myanmar

BANGKOK (AP) — Thai po- Myanmar border. Tuesday. The occupants supply being produced by the country. The U.N. drug
lice have seized what is be- Officers found an estimated of the truck a man and a militias and traffickers in agency’s June 2023 report
ing called a record haul of 50 million tablets hidden in woman were arrested. northern Myanmar.” on synthetic drugs in East
methamphetamine tablets sacks in a six-wheeler truck The quantity of metham- Myanmar has historically and Southeast Asia warned
in the western province of they stopped at a joint po- phetamine tablets seized been the region’s main that the huge trade in
Kanchanaburi, close to the lice-military checkpoint on is a record for Thailand, drug production area in methamphetamine and
Jeremy Douglas, the South- part because of lax secu- other illegal drugs shows no
east Asia regional repre- rity measures in border ar- signs of slowing down.
sentative for the United eas where minority ethnic Thailand’s Deputy Prime
Nations Office on Drugs groups have long been Minister Anutin Charnvi-
and Crime, said Wednes- fighting for greater auton- rakul, who is also interior
day. The region’s biggest omy. minister, told reporters that
known seizure took place in Some of the powerful eth- illegal drugs used to be
neighboring Laos in Octo- nic armed groups there smuggled into Thailand’s
ber 2021, when a consign- have been heavily involved northern and northeastern
ment of 55 million pills was in narcotics production for provinces, but had moved
discovered. decades. to western provinces such
“We’ve not seen major cas- A 2021 military takeover in as Kanchanaburi because
es here in Kanchanaburi for Myanmar that unseated of more intense surveil-
Thai soldiers stand beside seized 50 million methamphetamine a couple of years, and nev- the elected government of lance and security along
pills hidden in sacks during a news conference at er anything like this,” Doug- Aung San Suu Kyi triggered the old routes, a point
Thongphaphum Police station in Kanchanaburi province, las said. “But it’s also not a armed resistance nation- the U.N. agency had also
Thailand, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. surprise given the extreme wide, further destabilizing made earlier this year.q
Associated Press