【うるま】うるま市与那城伊計島の農道に米軍ヘリが不時着した問題で、伊計自治会が、沖縄防衛局からの被害補償に関する申し出を１日までに断った。抗議要請で同日、沖縄防衛局を訪れた玉城正則自治会長は報道陣に対し「補償などを受け取ることは米軍基地を置き続けることを容認することだ。各島々の上空を飛行しないよう強く米軍に抗議したい」と述べた。抗議要請には周辺の平安座、宮城、浜比嘉の計４島の自治会長らも同行し、４島の上空の飛行停止などを求めた。
沖縄防衛局は「地元自治会と着陸地周辺の農地の耕作者に対し、日米地位協定第１８条の規定に基づく損害賠償手続きなどについて説明した」としている。
抗議要請後、玉城自治会長は「補償の問題ではない。米軍基地がなければ、こうした事故も起きない」と述べ、不時着後すぐに米軍機が住宅地上空を飛行していることを批判した。
英文へ→Ikei neighborhood association rejects reparations offer, pushes to cease flights over 4 islands
伊計自治会が補償辞退 ヘリ不時着 「基地容認せず」
Ikei neighborhood association rejects reparations offer, pushes to cease flights over 4 islands
February 2, 2017 Ryukyu Shimpo
In light of a U.S. military helicopter making an emergency landing on an agricultural road in Uruma City, Yonashiro, Ikeijima, the Okinawa Defense Bureau (ODB) offered reparations to the Ikei neighborhood community association. On the first of the month, the neighborhood association denied the offer and made a call to protest. Head of the association Masanori Tamashiro said to the press that accepting compensation means accepting continued U.S. base presence. He went on to say residents want to object, and push the U.S. military to no longer make flights in the sky above each island. The heads of Henza, Miyagi, and Hamahiga Islands’ neighborhood community associations coordinated with Ikeijima in the call to protest, requesting suspension of flights over these four islands.
In response, the ODB asserted that the US-Japan Status of Forces Agreement Article 18 sets forth the ways in which reparations are handled in regards to local governments and cultivators of agricultural land in the vicinity of landing sites.
Following the call to protest, Tamashiro criticized the military aircraft’s emergency landing and quick takeoff over a residential area afterward. He said: “It isn’t an issue of reparations. If the U.S. military bases weren’t here, such incidents would not occur.”
(English translation by T&CT and Erin Jones)
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