Koizumi vows careful study of SDF deployment timing

0 Comments | Asian Political News, July 28, 2003

TOKYO, July 26 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING EARLIER CYCLE STORY, COMBINING RELATED STORIES)

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pledged Saturday to carefully study the timing for deploying the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to Iraq bearing in mind their safety under a law to assist Iraq's reconstruction that was just enacted after a prolonged Diet battle that featured politicians scuffling in the legislature.

With only two days to go before its recess, the Diet gave the final green light early Saturday to a government bill to send SDF troops to Iraq, with the House of Councillors endorsing it 136 to 102. The House of Representatives cleared the bill on July 4.

''We will conduct precisely required aid operations under independent judgment with sufficient consideration of the safety of SDF personnel,'' Koizumi said in a statement issued after the enactment of the law to send SDF forces to Iraq to held rebuild the country.

Eyeing a deployment in the fall or later, the government plans to carefully study conditions in Iraq and send a fact-finding mission including SDF personnel before deciding when and where Japanese soldiers will go and what they will do.

Despite increasing reports of attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, the government has repeatedly said SDF personnel will only be sent to ''noncombat'' zones.

''We are not necessarily in a hurry,'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told reporters. ''But I think the Iraqi people want it as soon as possible.''

''While sufficiently studying the situations in Iraq, we will decide on when, the scale and what to do there,'' the top government spokesman said.

Washington welcomed the enactment. White House spokesman Richard Boucher said, ''We think that Japan's ability to play this positive role in Iraq is a reflection of the kind of role it can play in world affairs.''

In Baghdad, however, many Iraqis warned that SDF troops could become targets of attacks by insurgents.

''It is risky for Japanese troops to be stationed here,'' said Hassan al-Najjar, assistant dean of the Media College at Baghdad University.

Nahida al-Attar, a 35-year-old housewife, said, ''Iraqis like the Japanese and consider them peaceful...But if they come here as soldiers, that means fighting and that means death.''

Boucher, however, maintained, ''There are indeed large areas of Iraq which are peaceful, which are stable, where the reconstruction work is underway, but which do not need some kind of security presence.''

The plan to dispatch SDF troops to Iraq came after U.S. President George W. Bush, Koizumi's closest ally on the global stage, expressed hope that Tokyo would participate in Iraq's postwar reconstruction. The administration submitted the bill in mid-June.

''Iraq's reconstruction and civilian stability is important not only for the stability of the Middle Eastern region, which holds an essential meaning for Japan, but also for peace and security of the whole international community including Japan,'' Koizumi said.

Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its two partners in the ruling coalition, the New Komeito party and the New Conservative Party, backed the bill. Opposition parties led by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) voted against it.

Amid a dramatic tussle of lawmakers, the coalition rammed the bill through the upper house's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the final step before its passage.

Opposition members of the committee claimed the procedure was invalid because Committee Chairman Ryuji Matsumura allowed an excited mob of ruling lawmakers to push the bill through, but to no avail.

Despite Diet approval, political wrangling is expected to continue for months given the unstable security situation in Iraq and no discoveries of weapons of mass destruction.

The United States and Britain had insisted the former Iraqi regime of President Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction, using the claim to justify their invasion of the country earlier this year. Japan backed the invasion despite its war-renouncing Constitution.

Key political events related to the deployment will be the Sept. 20 LDP presidential race, in which Koizumi will seek reelection, and a possible general election by the year-end.

A recent media poll showed that more than 50% of Japanese are opposed to sending the SDF to Iraq.

The opposition camp mounted fierce last-ditch resistance to the bill on Thursday and Friday. They submitted a binding no-confidence motion against the cabinet to the lower house and censure motions against Fukuda, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and Defense Agency Director General Shigeru Ishiba to the upper house.

The coalition, however, voted down all the motions.

The new law will expire in July 2007, but could be extended for another four years if deemed necessary.

It envisages SDF personnel helping foreign forces keep order in Iraq by providing medical services, supplying safe water, transporting materials and rebuilding infrastructure in areas where conflicts are not taking place or will not take place.