the price to rid them ...

US, Japan split over mly base relocation cost
March 25, 2006, The News International, Pakistan

TOKYO: Japan said on Friday it would hold fresh talks next week with the United States on a plan to realign US troops after negotiations stalled over Tokyo’s objections to paying $7.5 billion.

The two allies, which aim to finalise the deal by the end of the month, failed to reach a consensus in a two-day session in Tokyo that ended on Friday, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said. "I think we’ll have another round of talks in the US by the end of this month," Aso told a session of the lower house of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. "We didn’t necessarily come to a conclusion," he said. "We are building up the details right now."

The plan drafted in October would see the pull out of 8,000 of the more than 40,000 US troops in Japan, easing the burden on the southern island chain of Okinawa which hosts half of the soldiers.

Talks have focused on the US request for Japan to pay 75 per cent of the 10 billion-dollar cost of shifting troops from Okinawa to the US territory of Guam, which includes the cost of building new homes for soldiers and their families. "We feel we may have to do something if necessary for the housing expenditures for the 17,000 US troops and their family members, but to be honest we still feel skeptical about the figure," Aso said. The realignment was designed in part to ease concerns by communities hosting US troops but local residents have strongly opposed the plan, pushing for a greater pullout.

The Pentagon last week said it planned an 8,000-troop pullout from Okinawa, some 1,000 soldiers more than originally agreed to last year. The US was represented at the closed-door talks by Richard Lawless, deputy undersecretary of defence for Asia and the Pacific.

The Japanese delegation was led by Kazuyoshi Umemoto, deputy head of the foreign ministry’s North American affairs bureau, and Hironori Kanazawa, deputy head of the Defence Agency’s Bureau of Defence Policy. US troops are stationed in Japan under a security alliance forged after Japan was defeated in World War II and forced to renounce its right to a military.

Okinawa has frequently seen anti-US protests, particularly after the 1995 gang-rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US servicemen. On Friday, a court in Okinawa sentenced an American civilian employee of the US military to nine years in prison for rape. US Ambassador Thomas Schieffer in a statement issued earlier this week by the US military said the troops were committed to professionalism.