Japanese troops authorised to stay in Iraq
Japan’s Cabinet today approved a plan to keep Japanese troops in Iraq for another year.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a vocal supporter of the US-led invasion of Iraq, had argued the dispatch was needed to help stabilise the country and fight terrorism. The troops are strictly non-combat.
The Cabinet agreed to the plan to extend the humanitarian mission hours after the ruling coalition signed off on it, said Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa as he left the meeting.
The decision had been widely expected, despite opinion polls showing many Japanese favour bringing the soldiers home.
The current mission was scheduled to expire on Tuesday.
Tokyo has 550 soldiers in southern Iraq to purify water and rebuild infrastructure, supported by several hundred air and naval forces in neighbouring countries.
Koizumi sent the soldiers to Iraq in January, launching Japan’s largest and most dangerous military mission since the Second World War. He has said the international community had a responsibility to rebuild Iraq and could not allow the country to become a haven for terrorists.
Koizumi was expected to make an announcement later in the day.
“The prime minister intends to fully explain to people after the Cabinet approves the plan,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda had earlier told a news conference.
Many Japanese are opposed to the dispatch because they believe their soldiers could be drawn into fighting, putting them at risk of violating Japan’s pacifist constitution.
Opposition leaders also say all of Iraq is at war, thus failing to meet the conditions set out by the law authorising the dispatch that Japanese troops only be sent only to non-combat zones.
Concerns about security rose after a Japanese tourist visiting Baghdad was taken hostage in October and later beheaded when the government refused to bow to demands to withdraw its troops.
The Japanese base has also been the target of a series of mortar attacks, though no Japanese soldiers have been injured.
Opinion polls show 50% of Japanese want the troops to withdraw when the current mandate expires.
To assuage safety concerns, Defence Minister Yoshinori Ono briefly visited southern Iraq over the weekend and concluded the area Japanese soldiers were assigned to was secure enough to keep them there. Senior lawmakers from Koizumi’s Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the New Komeito Party, also surveyed the region this week.
The new mandate will last until December 14, 2005. To appease critics, it specifically mentions that Japanese troops may be pulled out if security deteriorates, Japanese media reported.
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