Japan said to demand punishment for journalist's death in Myanmar
Posted: 29 September 2007 1437 hrs

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TOKYO: Japan will urge Myanmar to punish those who are responsible for shooting dead a Japanese journalist in a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests, newspapers said on Saturday.

Kenji Nagai, 50, a video-journalist for Tokyo-based APF News, with years of experience covering world hotspots, was the first foreigner killed, when the government sent troops to quell protest in Yangon on Thursday.

Japan's Deputy Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka is scheduled to visit Myanmar on Sunday to deliver the demand to the military government, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, quoting government sources.

Japan, one of the leading donors to Myanmar, will consider a ban on Japanese investment in the country after receiving its reaction to the demand, the mass-circulation daily said.

Japan in 2003 suspended low-interest loans for major projects, such as infrastructure, to protest the continued detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But Japan says aid continues for emergencies and humanitarian purposes.

The United States and European nations have decided to tighten sanctions on Myanmar and called for the world to ramp up pressure due to the bloody crackdown.

But Japan, which often jostles for influence with China, Myanmar's main ally, has so far preferred the approach of most regional nations of trying to engage the junta.

The junta's crackdown on the biggest wave of public dissent in nearly 20 years has left at least 13 people dead, hundreds more jailed and sparked international outrage.

Toru Yamaji, president of APF News, left Tokyo on Saturday for Yangon to recover the body of Nagai and his belongings, particularly a video camera Nagai was using at his last gasp.

"It was obvious that a soldier shot him on the back," Yamaji told reporters at Tokyo's Narita Airport before his departure, saying his video may provide details of the killing.

In Tokyo, some 80 demonstrators rallied outside the junta's embassy, carrying pictures of Aung San Suu Kyi and Nagai's body lying on the road against the backdrop of people rushing away from troops.

Separately, some 10 Myanmar nationals began a 42-hour hunger strike in Nagoya, central Japan, to protest the junta's action and call for democratisation of the country, Kyodo News reported.


- AFP/so