Darwin Award in the Making? "Japanese Tourists Visiting Iraq" (No Joke!)

Wednesday, February 12, 2003 at 16:50 JST AMMAN, Jordan — Foreign tourists to Baghdad are not at liberty to browse in the streets and are prohibited from taking grand portraits of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. But Iraq, which has been declared "game over" by U.S. President George Bush, is in headlong eagerness to promote tourism campaigns this year.

On Monday, a group of eight Japanese tourists headed to the Iraqi capital from Amman in Jordan along a 700-kilometer road across the desert.

"I studied world history. I wanted to see Mesopotamian (ancient Iraq) ruins and the scenes being covered by news stories," said Yusuke Shoji, 23, a resident of Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, who visited Iraq in a group of nine Japanese and British tourists last December.

The Japanese youth and his traveling companions were allowed to make a trip to Basra in the south and Mawsil in the north, both in the U.S.-imposed no-fly zone, after sightseeing, watching some professional football and visiting ruins in Baghdad and surroundings.

The itinerary was arranged at the tourists' requests, according to Shoji. But they were not permitted to browse in the streets freely and or pictures of the presidential portraits seen everywhere in the capital, for unexplained reasons.

The accompanying local guide deterred the foreign tourists from approaching U.N. weapons' inspectors' vehicles. "But we are put in danger throughout the trip," Shoji said.

The one-week trip to Iraq organized by Iraqi tourist companies via Iraqi agents and Jordanian brokers in Amman costs $500, including transportation, lodgings and meals.

The tourists, who are asked to travel in a package of more than five, have to provide blood samples for HIV tests on their entry to Iraq.

A senior official at the Iraqi tourist authority said, "Our country is promoting a campaign to expand tourism in 2003 and plans to open travel agencies in the United States and Britain."

A couple of Japanese tourist groups visited Iraq between late last year and early this year. A local broker in Amman said, "I arranged for more than 50 Japanese tourists in the past year. A group saw the old year out in Baghdad."

"I am fully satisfied with the travel to where I expressed my wish to go. I felt welcomed, as Iraqi people gathered to hear from us in the streets," Shoji said.

But the Japanese Foreign Ministry is asking Japanese nationals to "postpone" a visit to Baghdad and to "leave" other local regions in Iraq. In 1991, prior to the Gulf War, Iraq put limits on foreign tourists' leaving the country as part of its "human shield" policy.

A 22-year-old male tourist from Hiroshima Prefecture left Amman for Baghdad on Monday, saying, "I did not explain my destinations to my parents, who could be worried about the consequences." (Kyodo News)

See !

>>TOKYO EA group of Japanese musicians, including Okinawa singer Shokichi Kina, will head for Baghdad to hold a peace concert there Saturday in protest at a possible U.S.-led attack on Iraq, they said Wednesday.

Also on Saturday, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Japan will stage a peace parade in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward in coordination with other simultaneous mass peace actions around the world, representatives of the NGOs said at a news conference in Tokyo.

The "No Wars But Celebration" delegation, featuring the acclaimed Okinawa band Shokichi Kina and Champloose, will leave for Iraq on Thursday morning. They are hoping to perform with Iraqi musicians in Baghdad and will return to Japan on Feb 20.

"The world has in its possession weapons that can destroy the earth many times and wipe out the human race thousands of times over," Kina said. "What would it become if there was a war?"

"I want to call upon all musicians in the world and ask them why they are now silent over the issue despite having been singing about love and peace all along," Kina said, adding that famous artists, in particular, have a great influence in this kind of peace movement.

Kina and his NGO "All Weapons into Musical Instruments" said Abdul Wahab Ghazal, charge d'affaires of Iraq's diplomatic mission in Tokyo, has accepted in principle their proposal for Iraq's participation in the movement that requests weapons from around the world be melted down and used to construct peace monuments.

Toru Wakabayashi, a member of the International Citizens' Observers to Iraq, and Misu Cho of the Peace Boat said their NGOs will also send delegations to Iraq to act as "human shields" and to bring information about the country back to Japan.

Wakabayashi, who resigned from his job as a high school instructor in late January in order to undertake the journey, said he will stay in Iraq until the United States decides not to wage war on the country or the war ends.

"Although I may not be able to do anything substantial, I believe I can comfort the high school students there and tell them everything will be fine," he said.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry issued a travel advisory on Jan. 23 calling on Japanese nationals in Baghdad to evacuate from the Iraqi capital. It is eyeing issuing a stronger evacuation advisory for Iraq and surrounding countries if the situation deteriorates.

In Japan, the "February 15 Peace Action in Tokyo" will consist of speeches, performances and a peace parade through the streets of Shibuya from 6:30 p.m. Saturday, a representative of the organizing committee said.

The event, organized by 15 NGOs in Japan including Green Peace Japan and the Peace Boat, will coincide with a series of global antiwar events coordinated by British NGO "Stop the War Coalition."

On Jan 18, over 5,000 people participated in a peace march in Tokyo organized by 33 NGOs, also as part of global protests against a possible war on Iraq. (Kyodo News)

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