Japanese protest killing of journalist in Myanmar

Straits Times

TOKYO - PROTESTERS against the killing of a Japanese journalist in Yangon last year on Tuesday submitted a petition signed by 40,000 people to the Myanmar embassy here calling for the return of his video camera.

The Myanmar embassy refused to admit a group of about 10 protesters, including the sister of Kenji Nagai, who was killed in September while filming a crackdown by Myanmar's junta on demonstrations led by Buddhist monks.

'I am disappointed to see this insincere attitude after we came here to bring the voices of many people who offered us support,' said Nagai's sister Noriko Ogawa, 48, who was holding a photograph of the late journalist.

Television footage showed Mr Nagai apparently being shot at close range by security forces, although nobody has been charged in relation to his death.

'Mr Nagai's videotape must show facts about the unrest in Myanmar that everyone has the right to watch,' said Ryosai Kishino, one of the protesters.

'We also demand the Myanmar government conduct a sincere investigation into the case,' he said.

The protesters were forced to drop some of the signatures in a post box and slip the rest under the embassy gate after trying in vain to persuade officials to take them.

Some 10,000 signatures were already submitted last year, organisers said.

'We made a telephone call and sent a fax to you yesterday about this.

Please bring someone here who is responsible for the matter,' Mr Kishino said at the embassy gate.

An autopsy by the Japanese police showed that Nagai, 50, was likely shot dead from a close range of just within one metre. -- AFP