Cheney Lauds Tokyo’s Hostage Stance

Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that the United States is doing “everything we can” to help secure the release of three Japanese civilians held hostage in Iraq, and warned that insurgents may seize even more captives as the June 30 target approaches for the launch of a new Iraqi government.

Cheney, who is visiting Tokyo on the first stop of a weeklong trip to East Asia, praised Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for rejecting the kidnappers’ demand that Japan withdraw its troops from Iraq.

“We wholeheartedly support the position the prime minister has taken with respect to the question of the Japanese hostages,” Cheney said after meeting with Koizumi. “[We] have consulted closely with the prime minister and his government to make certain we do everything we can to be of assistance.”

The vice president refused to describe how the U.S. is helping Japan resolve the crisis. But another official noted that American forces could gather information and seek the aid of tribal leaders in the Sunni Muslim area where the hostages were seized. U.S. troops also could attempt to rescue the hostages if the opportunity arose and Japan approved, although neither government was willing to discuss that possibility.

The discussion of the hostage crisis, which overshadowed the beginning of Cheney’s trip, underscored the unusually high political stakes in the issue. The kidnappers demanded that Japan withdraw its roughly 550 noncombat troops from Iraq by last Sunday, and threatened to burn the hostages if the demand was not met. Koizumi refused, and the deadline passed with no news of the hostages’ fate.

The standoff has turned into a political problem for the prime minister, with the hostages’ families appearing on television daily -- sometimes asking why Japanese troops cannot be withdrawn at least temporarily to save the lives of the captives.

The Bush administration, after laboring for months to persuade Japan and other countries to send troops to Iraq, is now facing the prospect of an equally difficult struggle to persuade them to remain.

So far, most governments with troops in Iraq have vowed to keep them there, despite the increased danger. But Spain’s incoming Socialist government has said it will withdraw the country’s 1,300 troops if certain conditions are not met, Honduras said its 370 troops would follow the Spaniards, and Thailand has said it will withdraw its 443 noncombat troops if violence makes their humanitarian mission impossible.

Cheney made a point of praising Japan for taking on the responsibilities of a great power by donating personnel and money to the U.S.-led efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In their meeting, Cheney warned Koizumi that anti-American insurgents in Iraq are likely to step up attacks against foreigners in the weeks remaining before the scheduled transfer of sovereignty, a senior American official said.

“We talked extensively about the situation in Iraq,” said the senior official, who requested anonymity because of the diplomatic and political delicacy of the talks. Cheney reaffirmed the administration’s determination to meet the June 30 deadline, and told Koizumi the U.S. plan is to “modify the [Iraqi] Governing Council and get it prepared to receive authority,” the official said.

“This period of time between now and June 30 is when there’ll be maximum pressure brought to bear by those who oppose what we’re trying to achieve in Iraq,” the official said, describing Cheney’s message to the Japanese prime minister. “There clearly are elements who don’t want to see us succeed in terms of transferring authority to the Iraqi people ... and they’ll do everything, including resort[ing] to force, violence, intimidation, kidnapping, the kind of thing we’re seeing going on now, in order to try to thwart that process.

“If governments respond to these kind of actions, they just simply encourage more of the same,” he said.

Officials said Cheney and Koizumi also discussed issues that were originally intended to be the focus of the vice president’s meetings: the negotiations with North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, the confrontation between China and Taiwan, and U.S.-Asian economic relations.

In a later meeting with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, Cheney raised some specific trade concerns, including Japan’s 5-month-old ban on imports of American beef after the detection of mad cow disease in the U.S., an American official said. No breakthrough was reported.

Cheney met with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko today at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, and gave a speech marking the 150th anniversary of the 1854 treaty negotiated by Commodore Matthew Perry that opened Japan to American trade. Later in the day, Cheney planned to fly to Beijing for a day and a half of meetings with Chinese government officials, including President Hu Jintao.