---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 06 Aug 2002 17:34:04 -0700
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: Red Army members want talks
Red Army members want talks
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2119696.stm>
Wednesday, 10 July, 2002
Four of the former Japanese Red Army guerrillas, who hijacked a Japan
Airlines plane to North Korea in 1970, have called on the Japanese
government to open talks so that they can return home.
In a statement faxed from the North Korean capital Pyongyang, they said
they feared that their continued presence in North Korea could be used as a
pretext to accuse Pyongyang of being a supporter of terrorism.
Of the nine original hijackers, two have died, while two others who
returned to Japan were tried and found guilty of air piracy.
The Red Army was formed in the late 1960s and advocated revolution through
armed violence.
It was responsible for numerous attacks, including an assault on an airport
in Tel Aviv in which 26 people died. The Japanese prime minister, Junichiro
Koizumi, has said the four will be arrested if they return home.
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