Monday, 3rd March 2008
Associated Free Press
TOKYO (AFP) — Japanese police arrested a US serviceman for breaking into an office on the island of Okinawa, officials said Monday, days after a curfew was imposed amid outrage over an alleged rape by a US Marine.
The round-the-clock curfew on all US soldiers and their relatives on the southern island of Okinawa, and Iwakuni in western Japan, was ordered in an effort to stem public anger over a series of incidents.
The US military was expected to decide Monday whether to extend the curbs, which were first imposed on February 20.
In the latest incident, the US airman was arrested on Sunday for allegedly leaving his base and trespassing into the office of a local association representing construction firms.
"He has admitted to climbing over the fence at the base," an Okinawa police spokesman said. "He smashed the glass door with a steel pipe."
The man's motive was unclear but he was intoxicated, police said.
"What a shame, really, that he committed the illegal act, breaking the curfew," said Japan's top government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura.
"The government of Japan will complain strongly again to the US government and military."
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda expressed regret but remained more reserved.
"I believe the US military is making efforts, but it happened," he told reporters. "I think that the (Japanese) diplomatic service is asking for more thorough measures to be implemented."
In a separate incident, Manuel Taitano, a 42-year-old worker at the Kadena base, was arrested Saturday for alleged use of an illegal drug at an off-base house, police said.
The drug arrest came on the day US Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer and Fukuda met and vowed to crack down on crimes.
The meeting was arranged after a surprise decision by prosecutors not to pursue rape charges against a Marine.
Staff Sergeant Tyrone Luther Hadnott, who had been accused of raping the 14-year-old, was freed from custody Friday after her family said it did not want to be part of such a high-profile case.
The case against Hadnott -- who was freed 18 days after his arrest on Okinawa -- triggered outrage across Japan and reignited controversy surrounding the presence of US troops.
Hadnott, 38, was immediately taken into custody by the US military, which said it would conduct its own inquiry.
It was the most high-profile of a series of recent incidents on Okinawa. Authorities are also investigating separate allegations that a US serviceman raped a Filipina in a hotel on February 18.
More than 40,000 US troops are stationed in Japan under a security treaty to protect Washington's key Asian ally, which has been officially pacifist since World War II.
Half of the troops are stationed in Okinawa, which was under US occupation until 1972 and is strategically close to the Taiwan Strait.
In 1995, following the rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US servicemen, Okinawa saw mass protests that set in motion a process of reducing the number of soldiers on the island.
The sweeping curfew imposed last month bans all members of the military and their families from leaving their bases or off-base residences until further notice.
Military members are barred from going out other than for their jobs or for worship, education or medical or dental treatment.
