Governor of Okinawa lobbies UN body over planned US base move

The governor of Okinawa has taken his effort to prevent the construction of a new US military site in Japan to a key United Nations human rights body, arguing that democracy and self-determination are threatened because his constituents oppose it.

"Okinawa is a small place; it is challenging to discuss with both Japanese and US governments when our rights of self-determination are not respected," he said, adding that he would like the world to know about this issue.

Takeshi Onaga said he's the first Japanese governor to appear before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. He wants to put an international spotlight on US Marine Air Station Futenma, which is slated to move to a less-developed area on Okinawa called Henoko.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Onaga faulted a lack of transparency from Japan's government about whether it is unwilling to stand up to the US or it actually wants the base. He said US Senator John McCain told him he saw it as a domestic Japanese matter.

Onaga said he was considering ways to block the move himself.

"The construction is scheduled for the next 10 years and during that period there are a number of authorizations that the Okinawa governor, and also the mayor of Nago, need to issue," he said, referring to a town near Henoko.

The governor pointed to the potential environmental threat to coral reefs and sea life that the base poses. He also cited several former US officials, insisting they too should question the strategic importance of the new Okinawa site.

Okinawa residents are upset at having to live alongside the Marine air station, and say the relocation only moves the burden elsewhere. They want the base off the island entirely. Onaga was elected last year on promises to fight the move.

Anti-military sentiment is high on Okinawa, which houses more than half of the 50,000 US troops stationed in Japan. In terms of space, 74 percent of US bases are on the island, which has only 0.6 percent of Japan's land.

The UN council is a forum for scrutiny of member nations' human rights records, but has no authority over the actions of any country.

Okinawa, formally an independent state known as the Ryukyu Kingdom until its annexation by the Japanese government in 1879, is a Japanese prefecture located between China and Japan.

AP - Xinhua