Three Japanese nongovernmental organizations have submitted a report to the United Nations detailing human rights abuses by the Japanese government and U.S. military forces against the people of Okinawa.

In the report, sent to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, they say Okinawans have been "subjected to policies of colonialism and forced assimilation, which have resulted in various forms of ethnic discrimination" since the Ryukyu Kingdom, an independent nation, was forcibly annexed by Japan in 1879.

They cite the "abnormal concentration of U.S. military bases" and "assimilationist policy of the Japanese government" as two main factors in the discrimination.

The NGOs are the Association of Indigenous Peoples in the Ryukyus, the Okinawa Citizens' Information Center and the Citizens' Diplomatic Center for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Their joint report was submitted to CERD, which in March is scheduled to examine the Japanese government's report on the prevention of racial discrimination.

Tokyo joined the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination on Dec. 15, 1995.

Regarding the military bases, the report says, "The incessant and unbearable noise around the U.S. military airfields has caused hearing difficulties among citizens and schoolchildren living in the area."

"This noise damage has also resulted in low birth weight," it claims.

In cases where U.S. servicemen marry Okinawan women, have children and then leave the family, the children "are guaranteed only limited educational opportunities and social security by the governments of both Japan and the United States."

The NGOs also claim Tokyo "has not established any public organ to investigate the whereabouts of these escaping fathers or to take judicial action against them."

Okinawa accounts for only 0.6 percent of Japan's land area, but hosts about 75 percent of the land allocated by Tokyo for U.S. military facilities.

On assimilation policies, the NGO report notes that, following the annexation, speaking the Ryukyu language was banned in schools and stigmatized in society.

"Schoolchildren who spoke in one of the Ryukyu languages were punished by being forced to wear a wooden board, a literal mark of shame," the report says. The practice had been in place until several decades ago.

As opportunities for the Okinawans "to learn their own history, language and the culture of the Okinawas/Ryukyus are not systematically guaranteed, the assimilation policy continues to violate the cultural rights of Okinawans," the NGOs say in the report.

They call for the government to guarantee rights for Okinawans to learn Ryukyu history, language and culture in the public education system and to set up a training program for teachers so they can teach these subjects to children in Okinawa.

The government's report to the U.N. provides information about the Ainu and foreigners living in Japan, but it does not refer to Okinawa and its people.

Hideaki Uemura, head of the Citizens' Diplomatic Center for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, said issues related to Okinawa have been discussed mainly as bilateral diplomatic problems between Japan and the U.S.

He said, "Our report aims to provide information about Okinawa to the international community from the viewpoints of ethnic identity and ethnic human rights."