Post by EXO on Feb 23, 2011 20:04:19 GMT 8
Philippine tribe says remains 'sold as Japan WWII dead'
Agence France-Presse
MANILA—Grave robbers have dug up the remains of Philippine tribesmen and passed them off as the bodies of Japanese soldiers killed in World War II, tribal leaders said Wednesday.
The skeletons of hundreds of Mangyan and Ifugao tribesmen have been shipped to Japan since 2008 after being unearthed by looters paid by a Japanese group, they claimed.
Aniw Lubag, a Mangyan leader, told a news conference his tribe briefly detained three people in 2008 as they stole bones from a burial cave on the central island of Mindoro.
"They said they were hired by non-Mangyans. We heard other Filipinos ordered (the digging up of bones) and then gave them to Kuentai," said Lubag, referring to a Japanese group established to find and repatriate the bodies of fallen soldiers.
Caesar Dulnuan, a head of the Ifugao tribal group, said skeletons had vanished from their northern mountain community after the Japanese group began searching for the remains of their war dead in the area.
"We don't know who received the bones. There were a lot of people and they paid them 500 pesos (11.40 dollars) per (skeleton) recovered," he said.
The looters said they were paid by others to bring bones to Kuentai, whose website says it is a "non-profit organisation" seeking to repatriate the remains of half a million Japanese soldiers killed during the occupation of the country.
Koji Nakamura, a spokesman for a group of Japanese war veterans and relatives, urged the Philippine government to investigate.
"If this is true, it is unscrupulous and profane," Nakamura told the news conference.
He said Kuentai had not checked whether the remains were those of Japanese soldiers, emboldening impoverished residents to dig up and sell Filipino bones.
"All they need is an affidavit from some Filipino people, saying 'We found these Japanese bones here and there,' and have it signed by a village official so the Japanese government has no reason to doubt them," he said.
The bones were later cremated and sent to Japanese national cemeteries for burial, making it impossible to bring them back, Nakamura added.
Nakamura said Philippine National Museum staff had taken part in Kuentai's retrieval program but told him they had no way of checking if the bones were Japanese.
Officials from the National Museum's cultural properties section told AFP that staff members who took part in the Kuentai project were unavailable for comment on Wednesday.
In Tokyo, an official at the Kuentai headquarters said that its representative in charge of media relations was not immediately available.
Japan's Kyodo news agency said Kuentai was officially tasked by the Japanese government in 2008 with collecting the remains of Japan's war dead in the Philippines.
It said around 500,000 Japanese soldiers died in the country during WWII, with the bodies of around 380,000 yet to be recovered.
In an interview with the Sankei News last October, Kuentai secretary general Usan Kurata denied allegations that his group and its local staff had been involved in the stealing of any bones or had paid money to buy remains.
Agence France-Presse
MANILA—Grave robbers have dug up the remains of Philippine tribesmen and passed them off as the bodies of Japanese soldiers killed in World War II, tribal leaders said Wednesday.
The skeletons of hundreds of Mangyan and Ifugao tribesmen have been shipped to Japan since 2008 after being unearthed by looters paid by a Japanese group, they claimed.
Aniw Lubag, a Mangyan leader, told a news conference his tribe briefly detained three people in 2008 as they stole bones from a burial cave on the central island of Mindoro.
"They said they were hired by non-Mangyans. We heard other Filipinos ordered (the digging up of bones) and then gave them to Kuentai," said Lubag, referring to a Japanese group established to find and repatriate the bodies of fallen soldiers.
Caesar Dulnuan, a head of the Ifugao tribal group, said skeletons had vanished from their northern mountain community after the Japanese group began searching for the remains of their war dead in the area.
"We don't know who received the bones. There were a lot of people and they paid them 500 pesos (11.40 dollars) per (skeleton) recovered," he said.
The looters said they were paid by others to bring bones to Kuentai, whose website says it is a "non-profit organisation" seeking to repatriate the remains of half a million Japanese soldiers killed during the occupation of the country.
Koji Nakamura, a spokesman for a group of Japanese war veterans and relatives, urged the Philippine government to investigate.
"If this is true, it is unscrupulous and profane," Nakamura told the news conference.
He said Kuentai had not checked whether the remains were those of Japanese soldiers, emboldening impoverished residents to dig up and sell Filipino bones.
"All they need is an affidavit from some Filipino people, saying 'We found these Japanese bones here and there,' and have it signed by a village official so the Japanese government has no reason to doubt them," he said.
The bones were later cremated and sent to Japanese national cemeteries for burial, making it impossible to bring them back, Nakamura added.
Nakamura said Philippine National Museum staff had taken part in Kuentai's retrieval program but told him they had no way of checking if the bones were Japanese.
Officials from the National Museum's cultural properties section told AFP that staff members who took part in the Kuentai project were unavailable for comment on Wednesday.
In Tokyo, an official at the Kuentai headquarters said that its representative in charge of media relations was not immediately available.
Japan's Kyodo news agency said Kuentai was officially tasked by the Japanese government in 2008 with collecting the remains of Japan's war dead in the Philippines.
It said around 500,000 Japanese soldiers died in the country during WWII, with the bodies of around 380,000 yet to be recovered.
In an interview with the Sankei News last October, Kuentai secretary general Usan Kurata denied allegations that his group and its local staff had been involved in the stealing of any bones or had paid money to buy remains.