China on Friday set up a legal aid fund for helping the Japanese aggressive war sufferers sue in Japan's courts for seeking compensations from the Japanese government and relevant companies involved.

The fund, with the starting sum of 300,000 yuan (37,040 US dollars), was jointly launched by the All-China Lawyers' Association and China Legal Aid Foundation.

Yu Ning, president of the All-China Lawyers' Association, said at a press conference that the special fund is aimed at offering money to Chinese wartime victims who are going to take compensation proceedings and also to Chinese lawyers who uphold justice for those Chinese victims.

This fund will be a great stimulation and support for the Chinese lawyers who work voluntarily for the wartime sufferers and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, and will help oblige those in Japan held responsible to apologize and compensate for their past atrocities by legal procedures, Yu said.

Takahashi Tohru, Japanese lawyer and head of the Japanese lawyer team for helping Chinese wartime sufferers demand compensation from the Japanese government, said one of the major difficulties for Chinese war sufferers to win their compensation litigation was the lack of money. The plaintiff did not have enough money to collect evidence and lawyers have no money to conduct their field studies.

"The legal aid fund will be enlarged by accepting donation from individuals or social organizations, and lawful earnings from investment," said Chen Yiwei, deputy secretary-general of China's lawful aid foundation.

"We will put into use this special fund in strict accordance with the related regulations on the use of special fund issued by the State Council," Chen said.

China's victims of the Japanese aggressive war, including "comfort women", laborer workers, survivors of the infamy Nanjing Massacre and sufferers of the remained gas bombs, started their efforts to seek war compensation from Japan in the 1980s. To date, 25 lawsuits on Chinese war victims asking compensation from Japan have been accepted and tried by the Japanese courts, but plaintiffs were the losers of all the lawsuits.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2005)