Radicals’ last-ditch effort fails to stop Tokyo airport opening

Press, 22 May 1978, Page 8

Radicals’ last-ditch effort fails to stop Tokyo airport opening

NZPA-Reuter Narita (Japan) Airliners began landing at Tokyo’s new airport yesterday after a last-ditch effort by Left-wing radicals to stop flights ended in ignominious failure.

Just before the first plane landed extremist opponents of the airport, 60 km northeast of Tokyo, tethered big balloons and kites on the end of ropes in the approach path to the runway. Riot police sped to the southern end of the runway and pulled down the flying hazards, all except one kite which soared 100 m above a radical fortress. But the pilot of the first plane to land at the airport, a Japan Air Lines DCB carrying 28 tonnes of cargo from San Francisco, ignored the kite and sailed serenely on to the runway for a perfect landing. Other cargo planes followed and the first pas-; sengers, 82 aboard a J.Al.| let en route from Frankfurt via Moscow, landed four; hours after the first arrival. Some 2500 airport oppo-i rents remained holed up in I

fortresses and huts arounc the airport perimeter. During Saturday night ar unknown group of extre ■ mists cut down a stee tower carrying electricitj supplies to Narita city’, 6 kn i from the airport. ; Some 19.000 households i had power cut off during the ■five-hour black-out, thf police said, but the airport was not affected. I The guard of riot police was reduced by half yester day. During the violenceridden run-up to the opening of the airport on Saturday some 14,000 were on duty Yesterday only 7000 were posted at the airport and a 1 radar and communication sites nearby. The opening on Saturday — 12 years, five deaths, and 8000 injuries after work or the airport began — was attended by only one Cabinel

II Minister. Shinto priests in tradii tional dress waved white - paper wands in the cavern--1 ous emptiness of the new terr minal building to wave off i any devils at the $2600 million airport, an object of i anti-Govemment hate to > thousands of Japanese : Leftists. J The Transport Minister (Mr Kenji Fukunaga) was the ■lonly Cabinet member to at- ■ | tend the ceremony because of the expectation of violence . later by thousands of extre- ; mists gathering nearby for a ’ protest rally. Earlier on Saturday, the ! white-helmeted Chukaku : (central core), the most i violent of the anti-airport organisations, claimed responsibility for cutting a cable I linking Tokyo’s other airport i with the main air control • centre for the Tokyo region ■ north of the capital.

As a result all domestic' • flights into and out of Tokyo; j were cancelled and inter-; - national flights were guided! - by emergency radios. f Later the Chukaku and the - police fought a pitched f battle. Four radicals were ) arrested and more than 25 > unused Molotov cocktails were seized by the police. The police said that the ; radicals fled after setting ■ fire to a car. : It has taken 12 years to ; open the airport because of - fighting between the police t and anti-airport forces, composed of an unlikely alliance > of radical Leftists and con- , servative local farmers who t feel they have not been suf- . ficiently paid for land taken . for the facility. 5 The airport had been t scheduled to open last I March 30 but a few days bei fore a guerrilla group crept through police lines, entered

I the control tower and 'smashed its flying aids with hammers |and pipes. ; Passengers planning to. I take planes from the new! ' airport will have to endure' 1 the most extensive security I 1 checks of any airport in the world. ' After taking a gruelling ! two to four-hour bus or train trip to the airport, ! they will have to pass ’ through three individual security check-points guarded by riot policemen dressed in I M a r t i a n-looking fighting gear. All people heading for the ' airport, whether by bus, 1 taxi, private car, or train, will have to go through the i checks. The police say any ; “suspicious looking charac- ■ ters” will be pulled out of : the queue and body searchI ed.

Venus rocket

Pioneer Venus One has blasted off flawlessly on a 640 million-kms journey that will put the satellite into orbit around Venus on December 4. The SUS2SOM Pioneer Venus project is aimed at providing scientists with information about Venus.—-Cape Canaveral.