FIRE produced daily reports and interviews from the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal in Tokyo, Japan December 7-12, 2000 .
Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal:
 
 

Celebrating the Breaking of Silence About Violence Against Women in War and Armed Conflict

Updates:
Day 1: *Celebration Charges 
Women's Tribunal Atmosphere
     *Japanese Government Ignores 
Tribunal Invitation and Summons
by Margaret Thompson and María Suárez Toro

Celebrating the breaking of silence about violence against women during war and armed conflict is the focus of the Women´s International War Crimes Tribunal taking place December 7-12, 2000 in Tokyo. This historic event, which will be covered daily by FIRE, will include testimonies of "comfort women" and other victims of sexual violence by the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII, as well as women from around the world who have suffered sexual violence in contemporary armed conflicts and war including Afghanistan, East Timor, Kosovo, Rwanda, Colombia and Guatemala, among other countries. 

The portion of the Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery is designed to create further international pressure on the Japanese government to go beyond mere apologies and give financial reparations to the thousands of comfort women and other victims of sexual violence by the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII.
 
Listen to Indai Sajor of ASCENT (Asian Center for Women's Human Rights)in the Philippines, one of the main organizers and convenors of the Tribunal, as she talks about the objectives of the Tribunal:


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FIRE will cover the Tribunal live via the Internet, continuing a 10-year tradition of broadcasting women’s voices about violations of human rights. FIRE’s coverage will include daily reports and interviews with members of the Tribunal organizing committee, as well as reports from testifiers and others attending the event. 

By broadcasting the event, FIRE also continues the longtime role of radio in breaking women’s silence, enabling women to speak out about sexual violence and other human rights violations within the intimacy of radio, to be heard but not seen.

FIRE invites all audience members to listen and participate in the daily webcasts by writing to us messages to pass along to these valiant women testifiers, some of whom today are more than 90 years old.  Many have kept silent for 50 years, and in speaking up during this decade, they have left us the legacy of making the United Nations and member states recognize that those crimes are war crimes. 

 FIRE will cover the Tribunal with daily reports from organizers and testifiers, thus continuing a long tradition of using radio to break women's silence on violations of human rights.

Listen to and participate in FIRE's daily webcasts, December 7-12:
   *9-10 am Spanish (Costa Rica/CST-US)
   *10-11 am English
   *11-12 bilingual

Write to us with celebratory messages for testifiers & organizers!
Tribunal Program Schedule
After opening celebration ceremonies on December 7th, the Tribunal will commence for three days with testimonies of "comfort women" and indictments from their home countries of South Korea, North Korea, Taiwan, China, Philippines and Indonesia. Day Three will also include perpetrators’ testimonies by Japanese military men, followed by conclusions from the tribunal judges and prosecutors. (For complete details go to the Tribunal home page at: www.jpc.apc.org/vaww-net-japan). Since Day Four of the Tribunal falls on International Human Rights Day, the evening will include a human rights day celebration.

Listen to Indai as she talks about how the event is organized, and the critical role of the Tribunal including the testimonies of the comfort women in the international women's human rights movement: 

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Public Hearing Features Women from Armed Conflicts Around the World
An International Public Hearing on Current Violence Against Women in Armed Conflicts is scheduled for December 11, with testimonies by women from countries currently or in post-armed conflict situations, including Afghanistan, Cambodia, Colombia, Guatemala, Burma, East Timor, Kosovo, Rwanda, Congo, Guatemala, among others. 
Yayori Matsui, journalist and founder of the Violence Against Women in War Network-Japan (VAWWNET-Japan), which is a convenor of the Tribunal, talked to FIRE about how the Public Hearing was developed.  She also told the story of the creation of the VAWWNET-Japan in 1993 after the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna.  The Network's efforts were also affirmed in the Platform for Action of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women,  which included women and armed conflict as a critical area of concern:
 
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Yayori Matsui
Indai also talked to FIRE about the International Public Hearing and explained that violence against women can include the immediate impact of armed conflict and war, but also "time-delayed violence" of war such as the long-term impact of chemical warfare.  She also noted that fundamentalisms serve to aggravate and increase violence against women:

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Tribunal Emphasizes Celebration and Solidarity
The overall theme of the Tribunal is celebration, of breaking the silence of women in war and armed conflict, and of the continuing efforts of the international women’s movement on issues of women’s human rights. Likewise, the women who attend the event will continuing linking these issues with other issues of women’s human rights, and celebrate their solidarity.

Indai calls for a celebration of these women's lives and testimonies and solidarity among activists on issues related to women's human rights:

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Historic Role of Radio in Breaking Women’s Silence
Radio including FIRE has played a critical role in giving women a safe space to speak out, to give their oral testimonies of their violations of their human rights. The first comfort woman in the Philippines to break her silence did so on local radio, according to Indai Sajor, who recalled this event in an interview with FIRE’s María Suárez.  Indai also talked about the critical role of alternative media for women, whose voices are often silenced in mainstream media.  But she emphasized how alternative women's media should link to mainstream media to help them understand women's perspectives and initiatives, and to "pose questions that have been left unanswered all these years" :

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Such links with other media and radio in particular are also part of FIRE's strategy for this Women's Tribunal.   If you work in radio, or have access to radio, you can download our sounds files and re-broadcast them on your own programs.  Let's join in the celebration of the Women's International Tribunal on War Crimes, and continue working in solidarity by sharing their voices with our audiences worldwide.

Listen to Yayori as she relates her experiences as one of the first women journalists with mainstream media in Japan.  She notes the powerful impact on her of reporting on the testifiers at the Vienna Tribunal on Violence Against Women in Vienna in 1993: Click

Comfort Women's Testimonies Break Silence of 50 Years
FIRE recorded two testimonies about comfort women at the Vienna Tribunal, including that of Kim Boc Dong of Korea, who relates the story of how when she was a young girl, her mother was told by Japanese soldiers that she would work in a factory for three years, but instead was forced into sexual slavery: 


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Ching Chun Sun of Korea calls for the Japanese government to pay compensation to the comfort women "so that this does not happen again" : 

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