[lbo-talk] Japan to send troops to Iraq Report

[Ulhas Joglekar]

HindustanTimes.com

Monday, June 30, 2003

Japan to send troops to Iraq: Report

Agence France-Presse
Tokyo, June 30

Japan plans to send more than 1,000 troops to Iraq to help rebuild the
war-torn country under new legislation expected to pass by late July, a
report said on Monday.

As a first step, some 500 ground self-defence force troops, the core of the
Japanese mission, are likely to be deployed starting in early October, the
Tokyo newspaper said.

The troops are expected to supply fuel and water to US forces and citizens
in Baghdad, the daily said, citing a defence agency outline on
reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

Japanese and US officials plan to discuss the details based on the outline
in a meeting on Monday, the report said.

The air self-defence force will send three C-130 transport planes while the
maritime self-defence force will deploy an amphibious ship and a destroyer,
according to the paper.

In all, the number of Japanese SDF personnel is likely to top 1,000, the
newspaper said.

A defence agency spokesman declined to confirm the report.

"We cannot comment as the issue has been under deliberation in the diet,"
the spokesman said.

Japan's parliament has debated a bill that would authorise the dispatch of
troops to Iraq to help reconstruction efforts but limit their activities to
humanitarian and reconstruction assistance in  "no-combat areas".

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party gave the green
light for a draft bill after deleting a provision that Japanese troops would
be involved in disposing of abandoned weapons of mass destruction  (WMD).

© Hindustan Times Ltd. 2003.
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