Incident of Boat Sunk by Japan Not Clearly Explained: Analysis

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, December 29, 2001

Incident of Boat Sunk by Japan Not Clearly Explained: Analysis

Last Saturday evening when many people were leisurely spending their weekend, there was a cluster of Japanese warplanes and warships in the water region of the East China Sea, making the situation extremely pressing. According to a Japanese media report: Japanese patrol vessels repeatedly strafed a "suspicious" boat, which was thus on fire and sank at 10:13, Tokyo time. Fifteen people on board the boat were drowned.

Mobilization of Forces, Great Disparity in Strength

Information about the event has thus far come from Japan's official announcement, and there is no other source of information. A summary of the pieces of information disclosed by Japanese media makes it possible roughly to depict such a track of pursuit: At 4:00 p.m. December 21 Tokyo time, a cruising plane of Japan's Maritime Self-defense Corps discovered a "suspicious" boat on the open sea 150 km to the northwest of Amami Ohshima Island and it reported this to Japan's Maritime Safety Agency on the morning of December 22.

The said Agency sent out 25 patrol boats and 14 airplanes for pursuit, the boat was confirmed at 240 km northwest of the said Island at 6:20. At about 1:00 p.m. they caught up with the suspicious boat at 324 km from the Island, fired a shot into the air and ordered the boat to stop sailing. The boat, ignoring the order, continued to sail at a speed of around 15 km per hour, fleeing westward.

At about 4:00 p.m., two patrol vessels of the Maritime Safety Agency began to use 20 mm machine guns to attack the body of the suspicious boat and hit it, setting fire on the deck. The boat continued to flee westward after extinguishing the fire, it stopped sailing somewhere 393 km at 5:30, then fleeing for seven km, a patrol vessel got near it, making a successful forced stop.

At 7:00 p.m., four patrol vessels encircled the suspicious boat, ready to take measures of detention, the suspicious boat again tried to flee after 9:00. The patrol vessels opened fire at it 10 times, aiming at the stern propeller and the engine cabin of the boat. At 9:35 after firing, the patrol vessels once again encircled the suspicious boat.

At 10:09, two persons on the suspicious boat suddenly opened fire, slightly injuring the wrists of two persons in the cockpit of the patrol vessel. So the patrol vessel launched fierce strafes.

At 10:13, four minutes later, the suspicious boat sank, the 15 boatmen plunged into the sea, and after about two hours, the 15 seamen disappeared.

According to a Japanese media report, to deal specifically with the suspicious "fishing boat" with a displacement of about 100 tons and a sailing speed of 15 km per hour, the Japanese Maritime Safety Agency moved out 25 patrol vessels and 14 airplanes to chase after it. In order to guarantee "perfect safety", the Maritime Self-defense Corps even dispatched warning planes and an Aegis destroyer with a displacement of 7200 tons to attend to garrison for "deterrent" duty, constituting a stereoscopic warning posture, using the strength of a bull to kill a chicken. Regrettably, the large-scale force mobilized failed to bring the boat to justice, and none of the 15 suspects were caught alive.

Legal Basis, "Legitimate Defense" Stressed

The situation was, without a doubt, extremely vital. This was the first attack Japan ever launched on the hull of a boat in the past 56 years after World War II, causing serious consequence of the wreckage of a boat and the death of people.

It caused people to associate this with the series of army rectification trends, such as Japan's enactment and enforcement of the "law of surrounding situation" as well as related laws in recent years, particularly the amendment to the law of the Maritime Safety Agency and the amendment to the law of the self-defense corps adopted and put into effect last month, the provision, stipulating that firing the hull and injuring people on boats within the territorial water can be exempted from criminal responsibility, was added.

However, the attack launched this time was far from Japan's territorial waters, so it is difficult to use this provision.

Although Japanese media based their introduction on the Law of the Maritime Safety Agency: deterrent attack on the hull can be launched on the sea areas outside the territorial waters of another country, but why the Maritime Safety Agency which has been for decades prudent in the use of this law launched such a type of attack precisely at a time when Japan was quickening its pace of untying the army in its action, this is really difficult to understand.

In addition, this time the incident took place somewhere 400 km northwest of Japan's Amami Ohshima Island, and 260 km from China's territorial waters, crossing the Japan-China medium line into the economic water region of the Chinese side.

All actions, intimidating firing into the air and subsequent direct use of force till the sinking of the boat-all took place here. Japan explained the matter this way: At the beginning the pursuit was carried out in the economic water area of the Japanese side. According to common international practice and related laws, under such circumstance it is permissible to enter the economic water region of another country to carry on the task.

This has, of course, aroused China's concern and attention. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said while answering a reporter's question, "The Chinese side expressed concerns over Japan's use of force in the water areas of the East China Sea, and regret over the matter of the wreckage of the boat and the casualty of personnel".

After occurrence of the incident, Japanese head of government immediately stressed that the action taken by the Maritime Safety Agency was entirely lawful. He emphasized that when the suspicious boat appeared in the economic sea area far away from Japan's territorial waters, the demand for inspecting the boat was based on Japan's fishery law, and the later attack launched on the body of the boat was based on the Maritime Safety Law and the police officer's duty-performing law, the final strafe was a counter-attack mounted after firing was done by seamen of the boat, which logically belonged to legitimate defense. Since it was regarded as the government's official view, various major Japanese newspapers and TV stations all reported on Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's December 23 remark about "legitimate defense".

Post-tensed East China Sea Left Behind 15 Bodies and A String of Queries

With the conclusion of the 30-hour pursuit, the water region of the East China Sea after the tense situation left behind 15 corpses whose nationality and aim remained unclear, as well as some queries which may become the focus of future discussions.

The whole course from the discovery to pursuit and attack till the sinking of the "suspicious boat" all happened in the economic water region of Japan and China, that is, over the high sea. In the open sea area of the non-territorial waters, whether one has the right and necessity to launch deterrent attack and even assault on the hull of the "suspicious boat" will sooner or later become the focus of public concerns of Japan and the surrounding countries.

Naoto Kan, director-general of Japan's Democratic Party, raised this question. He said, "Attack launched after the firing by the opposite side was a legitimate defense, but the attack launched by ordering a halt to sailing in the economic water region is quite another thing", he demanded a thorough investigation into the event.

In the meantime, some senior government officials began to spread rumors, claiming that there was the need to enact law on the use of weapon on the high sea on the grounds of the incident, in order to open up a new free space for Japan's marine military force.

The result of the three-dimensional dispatch of Japan's powerful maritime safety force plus the maritime self-defense corps with first-rate equipment shows that they failed to capture a "decoy boat" of less than 100 tons in weight and a sailing speed of about 15 km per hour, this has also left a profound impression on people. It seems to be oversimplified to attribute the failure to Japan's inadequate marine inspection force or lack of sufficient training.

The whole course took 30 hours of pursuit and eight hours of close-range contact, does this show that they had not expected the opposite side might carry with them weapons? Under the circumstance of a great disparity of strength, are there other better methods to be employed than firearm attacks?

There was only a duration of four minutes from the final gunshot to the sinking of the boat, is this the result from the earlier attack, or is it the self-sinking of the suspicious boat as alleged by the Maritime Safety Agency? To clarify this point, it is necessary to see whether the result of an objective investigation report can be produced.

Probably there is no other means more simple and important than detention of the seamen if one wants to make clear the nationality of the suspicious boat and its aim of entering Japan's economic water region. The patrol vessel which had contacted the boat several times, and it witnessed the drowning of the 15 sailors, but in the end it failed to capture any of them alive.

Japan's Maritime Safety Agency cited two reasons for this: First, they feared the one rescued would be a ruffian, self-explosion would perish together with the patrol vessel; second, that day the weather was bad, wave was four meters high and visibility was low. But the sailors were wearing life jackets and plunged into the sea collectively, does this imply that they hadn't given up the desire for living on?

If, in the incident of Japan's sinking of the suspicious boat, its amassment of forces was making a big fuss over the matter, but when the event developed to its present extent, probably they have come to realize they have made the matter somewhat mess, even they themselves feel it sounds farfetched to explain the matter by using the current law. While Japanese Prime Minister stressing "legitimate defense", he hinted that he would consider revising laws, study setting a standard for the use of weapons outside the territorial sea, it seems illustrating this point from one aspect.

Whether Japan can justify itself regarding the legitimacy of the event of sinking the suspicious boat last Saturday has become a vitally important question which Japanese authorities concerned have to face up to at present. But if they want to really win people's confidence, and prove that the action taken by the Maritime Safety Agency is reasonable and lawful. It is not that it can easily pass the test with studies of countermeasures against public opinion, the key lies in whether it can present convincing facts.

By People's Daily Online

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