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Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, under fire
abroad for denying government involvement in forcing
women to serve as sex slaves during the Second World
War, said yesterday he was "apologising here and now as
the prime minister".
Abe said earlier this month there was no proof
Japan's government or army kidnapped women to serve as
"comfort women," as the wartime sex slaves are known in
Japan.
He has also said he stood by a 1993 apology known as
the Kono Statement that acknowledged official
involvement in the brothels. However, he ruled out any
new apology, even if US lawmakers were to adopt a
resolution seeking one.
"I am apologising here and now as the prime minister,
and it is as stated in the Kono Statement," Abe told a
parliamentary committee.
Kidnapping
"As I frequently say, I feel sympathy for the people
who underwent hardships, and I apologise for the fact
that they were placed in this situation at the time,"
Abe told the committee.
The prime minister's earlier comments denying
official involvement in kidnapping women, mostly Asians,
to work in the wartime brothels have angered Seoul and
risked straining ties with Washington, where US
Congressman Michael Honda has introduced a resolution
calling for Japan to make an unambiguous apology for the
suffering of the sex slaves.
No vote on the resolution, which Abe has criticised
as full of errors, is expected until May, after Abe
visits Washington for talks with US President George W.
Bush. |