Decision next week on Japanese troops
Japan’s cabinet is likely to decide next week whether to extend its humanitarian mission in Iraq, the country's foreign minister said today.
Amid expectations that Tokyo’s troops will remain in the country for another year, the mandate for the mission, which includes 550 troops in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah, is set to expire on December 14.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has hinted repeatedly that his government will keep the soldiers in place.
The Japanese base in Samawah, set up early this year, has been protected so far by a contingent of Dutch soldiers. The Netherlands, however, plans to withdraw its troops in March, meaning Tokyo will need to find new protectors.
Defence Agency chief Yoshinori Ono said today that Tokyo would look to Britain for possible assistance.
“British troops are monitoring (southern Iraq) for the international forces, so we must have substantial talks with them,” Ono said.
Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura told a parliament committee today that the government would discuss the extension when Koizumi arrives from an Asian summit meeting in Laos on Wednesday.
“It will probably be decided at a cabinet meeting next Friday,” Machimura said in comments that suggested the extension would be approved. The national Asahi Newspaper reported today that the extension would be for another 12 months.
The deployment, strictly non-combat, has been criticised by many in Japan who argue the dispatch violates the pacifist constitution and could lead terrorists to target Japanese people for attack.
Koizumi, however, has insisted that the move is needed to help reconstruct Iraq, stabilise the oil-rich Middle East, bolster Tokyo’s alliance with the United States and raise Japan’s profile abroad.
The government stood firm in its commitment to the mission in October, when militants holding a Japanese civilian hostage threatened to behead him unless Tokyo withdrew its troops. Koizumi refused, and hostage Shosei Koda was killed.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda assured reporters the withdrawal of the Dutch, confirmed by visiting Defence Minister Henk Kamp, would not leave Japanese troops vulnerable.
“The pullout does not mean that there will be a vacuum in the area where the Dutch troops are now,” Hosoda said. “I think how to maintain security will be an issue.”
Japan has been concerned in recent months about the deterioration in security in the area near the base, and mortars have been fired at or near the installation. No Japanese soldier, however, has so far been hurt.
