Japan may delay Iraq force
The deployment of Japanese troops in Iraq may be postponed, following the recent bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad.
Last month the Japanese parliament approved plans to despatch up to 1,000 personnel to help with post-war reconstruction in Iraq, in what would be the largest deployment of Japanese troops overseas since WWII.
But Defence Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba warned that it might not be possible to send troops to Iraq this year, given the dangerous security situation in the country.
"If you look at the current situation, common sense says we cannot send them right away," Mr Ishiba said late on Wednesday.
Japan is not alone in having doubts as to whether to go ahead with its peacekeeping mission to Baghdad.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Wednesday he might cancel plans to send 400 Thai troops in the wake of Tuesday's bomb attack.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been determined to keep a promise to the United States to participate in Iraq's reconstruction.
The deployment of an expected 1,000 Japanese troops had been widely expected to take place as early as November. The reconnaissance mission had been expected to start this month.
Pacifists' concerns
But many Japanese voters were opposed to the planned intervention, even before the bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
Mr Koizumi has repeatedly pledged that troops would only be sent to "non-war zones", but Tuesday's truck bomb attack, which killed the UN envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 23 others, has highlighted the danger to foreign personnel in the country, even those in strictly non-combat roles.
Some members of the electorate are not only concerned both about Japanese casualties, but also about the possibility of the troops getting drawn into a combat role if fighting continues.
Japan's strictly pacifist constitution prohibits troops from being used for purposes other than defence. Japanese soldiers have not fired a shot in combat since 1945.
Small military contingents have been sent to take part in several UN peacekeeping operations, most recently in East Timor, but only one serviceman died on these missions, and that was from a heart attack.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3169401.stm
The deployment of Japanese troops in Iraq may be postponed, following the recent bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad.
Last month the Japanese parliament approved plans to despatch up to 1,000 personnel to help with post-war reconstruction in Iraq, in what would be the largest deployment of Japanese troops overseas since WWII.
But Defence Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba warned that it might not be possible to send troops to Iraq this year, given the dangerous security situation in the country.
"If you look at the current situation, common sense says we cannot send them right away," Mr Ishiba said late on Wednesday.
Japan is not alone in having doubts as to whether to go ahead with its peacekeeping mission to Baghdad.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Wednesday he might cancel plans to send 400 Thai troops in the wake of Tuesday's bomb attack.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been determined to keep a promise to the United States to participate in Iraq's reconstruction.
The deployment of an expected 1,000 Japanese troops had been widely expected to take place as early as November. The reconnaissance mission had been expected to start this month.
Pacifists' concerns
But many Japanese voters were opposed to the planned intervention, even before the bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
Mr Koizumi has repeatedly pledged that troops would only be sent to "non-war zones", but Tuesday's truck bomb attack, which killed the UN envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 23 others, has highlighted the danger to foreign personnel in the country, even those in strictly non-combat roles.
Some members of the electorate are not only concerned both about Japanese casualties, but also about the possibility of the troops getting drawn into a combat role if fighting continues.
Japan's strictly pacifist constitution prohibits troops from being used for purposes other than defence. Japanese soldiers have not fired a shot in combat since 1945.
Small military contingents have been sent to take part in several UN peacekeeping operations, most recently in East Timor, but only one serviceman died on these missions, and that was from a heart attack.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3169401.stm
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