
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 5, 1995                   TAG: 9509060127
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TOKYO                                LENGTH: Medium

BUSH ASKED TO HALT `MOONIE' GROUP TALK

Several Japanese groups are urging former President George Bush to cancel a speech in Tokyo next week sponsored by an organization linked to the Unification Church.

Bush and his wife, Barbara, are scheduled to appear at a Sept. 14 ``Global Family Festival'' organized by the Women's Federation for World Peace. The federation is led by Hak Ja Han Moon, who is married to the leader of the Unification church, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

The United Church of Christ in Japan, a prominent mainstream Christian group, wrote Bush last week, urging him not to attend. So did a group of 300 lawyers representing people suing the church. A group of people whose children were recruited into the church also criticized the trip.

Hiroshi Yamaguchi, leader of the lawyers' group, said Monday that Bush's presence would lend legitimacy to the church, which has been accused of devious recruitment tactics and of brainwashing its members.

Although a Bush spokesman said the women's federation and the church are separate, Yamaguchi called the federation a ``front organization'' for the church.

``Your cooperation with the Unification Church has been a source of great apprehension and surprise among residents in Japan,'' Yamaguchi said in his letter to Bush. ``The very conference in which you plan to participate is rife with organized illegal practices.''

Yamaguchi said the women's federation often uses public figures to lure people to events like the family festival, where church members solicit donations.

Yamaguchi said his group has handled more than 16,000 cases over the last eight years of Japanese people victimized by heavy-handed sales tactics by church members. He said the church has returned $155 million to the clients.

James McGrath, a spokesman for the Bushes in Houston, told The New York Times that the Bushes know the federation is headed by Moon's wife but are convinced it is separate from the church. There was no answer at McGrath's office Monday.

The church also denies any direct relationship with the women's federation.

The South Korea-based Unification Church, which claims between 2 million and 3 million members, arranged a mass wedding of 720,000 people two weeks ago across the world.

Bush's weeklong stop in Japan is part of an Asian tour that also takes him to China and Vietnam.

He arrived in Hanoi on Monday for a four-day visit. Bush will be the first former president to meet with Vietnam's Communist leaders since the Vietnam War ended in 1975. No serving U.S. president has met with Vietnamese leaders.

by CNB