MORE than 100 victims of World War II appealed to President Jiang Zemin yesterday to let their case against Japan be presented to a meeting of international pressure groups.
Zhang Tingqi, a 68-year-old retired accountant whose father was killed by Japanese soldiers in 1931, said she organised the open letter to Mr Jiang on behalf of Tong Zeng, leader of a private compensation campaign for war victims.
Mr Tong says the Government has revoked permission for him to attend the Non-Governmental Organisations Forum, which opens on August 30 in the suburbs of Beijing and which is being put on as part of the United Nations World Conference on Women which runs from September 4-15.
Before the Civil Affairs Ministry changed its mind, Mr Tong was to have joined in a discussion on women forced to serve the Japanese as sex slaves in the war.
'We old people victimised by the war all see Tong Zeng as our guide, as our benefactor,' the letter said.
'This action by the Civil Affairs Ministry has aroused fervent dissatisfaction among war victims, and we beseech the Government to dispute the ministry's wrong decision and restore Tong Zeng's lawful rights.' The letter was signed by 118 people from all over the country, said Madam Zhang.
Some had been sex slaves, some had done forced labour in Japan, some were survivors of the Nanjing massacre, some had been crippled by bombs and some lost relatives in 14 years of colonisation, invasion and occupation.