Japanese Red Army
The Japanese Red Army ( Japanese 日本 赤 軍 , Nihon Sekigun , English Japanese Red Army , JRA) was a radical left-wing terrorist organization . Fusako Shigenobu , a former student of Meiji University , founded it in 1971. It was based in the Lebanese Bekaa Valley.
The initially purely Marxist-Leninist organization always sought outside support. The Palestinian PFLP ( Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine , dt. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine , founded by George Habash ) supported the JRA, which in turn led by the PFLP operations.
After July 1988, the JRA ceased to exist as an active group. Your organization, around 20 people, probably chose the base in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon or a place in North Korea as a place of refuge .
In March 1995, longtime JRA terrorist Yukiko Ekita was arrested in Romania and extradited to Japan .
In April 2001, Shigenobu announced the termination of the JRA, which the group confirmed in the annual "May 30th Declaration".
According to Regine Igel , two leading cadres of the JRA, the founder Shigenobu and Masao Adachi (* 1939), were unofficial employees of the GDR State Security from 1987 at the latest and were led by them as IMB . Adachi called this representation " fake ".
The group is often confused with others who had similar names:
- Sekigun-ha (赤 軍 派 , dt. "Red Army Faction", Eng. Red Army Faction , actually:共産主義者 同盟 赤 軍 派 , Kyōsan shugisha dōmei sekigun-ha , dt. "Red Army Faction of the Federation of Communists ")
- Rengō Sekigun (連 合 赤 軍 , German "United Red Army", English United Red Army )
Actions by the JRA
When massacre at Lod Airport , a suicide attack by three members of the JRA with assault rifles and hand grenades on the international airport of Tel Aviv , in 1972 26 people, including 17 Puerto Rican citizens who were on a pilgrimage to Israel died on May 30, 80 were injured. JRA member Kōzō Okamoto survived the attack.
The JRA later found support from "Carlos" Ilich Ramírez Sánchez .
On January 31, 1974, members of the JRA raided a plant belonging to the Shell oil company on Pulau Bukom Island, part of Singapore , and took five hostages. At the same time , another PFLP group attacked the Japanese embassy in Kuwait . Several Singapore government officials were voluntarily captured, including the later President Sellapan Ramanathan . The hostages were released on payment of a ransom and safe flight on a Japanese plane to southern Yemen .
On September 13th, members of the JRA stormed the French embassy in The Hague , wounded the Dutch policewoman Hanke Remmerswaal with a shot in the back and took the ambassador and ten other people hostage. They demanded the release of JRA member Yutaka Furuya, US $ 300,000 and a plane. After lengthy negotiations, the prisoners were released at the embassy. A plane flew the terrorists first to southern Yemen, where they were turned away, and then to Syria . The local government forced them to give up the ransom.
September 15, 1974: Hand grenade attack on a drugstore on Rue St. Germain in Paris, leaving two dead and 35 injured. Presumably carried out by "Carlos", who wanted to influence the action in The Hague by increasing pressure on the French government.
From the early 1980s, the JRA built up earmarked assets through strategic operations.
In 1986, JRA leader Shigenobu decided to further diversify the flow of income by entering into a lucrative deal with the Libyan revolutionary leader, Muammar al-Gaddafi . In retaliation for the US attacks on the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi in April 1986 ( Operation El Dorado Canyon ), Libya wanted revenge, but since Gaddafi feared further US retaliation from the air, he did not want to act directly. The Libyan leadership turned to the JRA and the group used the code name AIIB ( Anti-Imperialist International Brigades ) as a cover for operations specifically on behalf of Libya.
Actions of the AIIB
April 1986: Three British citizens are kidnapped and murdered in Lebanon.
June 1986: Remote controlled mortar attacks against the US and Japanese embassies in Jakarta, Indonesia.
April 1987: on the anniversary of the US attack on Libya, three attacks were carried out on US diplomatic institutions in Madrid (Spain).
June 1987: Detonation of a car bomb in front of the US embassy in Rome (Italy).
June / July 1987: Missile attack against the US and British embassies in Rome.
April 1988 - On the 2nd anniversary of the US attack on Libya , simultaneous attacks against military targets in the US and Europe were to follow. The attack in the USA failed in March 1988 when the JRA activist Yu Kikumura was arrested in New Jersey. He was on his way to New York . In his car, Kikumura had simple anti-personnel bombs that he planned to plant in front of a US Marines recruitment office on Wall Street, Manhattan. Kikumura was later convicted and given a 30-year prison term. The planned attacks in Europe, however, went almost according to plan. A car bomb exploded outside a US military club in Naples , killing five people and injuring 17 others. A bomb attack was carried out on a US air force base in Spain. In July 1988, a guided missile attack on the US embassy in Madrid failed.
literature
- Andrew Williams: The Japanese Red Army Faction. With a foreword by Gregor Wakounig. Vienna 2018, ISBN 978-3-903022-77-5
- Florian Edelmann: The Chimera of the World Revolution: Red Army Faction, United Red Army and Japanese Red Army - Armed Struggle in Japan and in an International Context. In: Alexander Straßner (Ed.): Social revolutionary terrorism. Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 305-327.
- William R. Farrell: Blood and Rage. The Story of the Japanese Red Army . Canada 1990.
- Michaël Prazan: Les Fanatiques. Histoire de l'armée rouge japonaise. Seuil, Paris 2002. ISBN 2-02-048686-5 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Movements of the Japanese Red Army and the "Yodo-go" Group. National Police Department , accessed September 21, 2009 .
- ^ Regine Igel : Terrorism Lies. How the Stasi acted underground . Munich 2012, pp. 118–129; see also: Regine Igel: leaders of the Japanese Red Army were registered Stasi agents . Telepolis , November 7, 2010
- ^ Lutz Dammbeck : Bruno & Bettina - A conversation about art and revolution with Masao Adachi. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur. July 27, 2018, archived from the original on September 25, 2019 ; accessed on September 24, 2019 (from 00:40:32).
- ↑ Nazomerdag in The Hague: Peppers in de Franse ambassade