Sunday, November 13, 2005

Japanese troops to quit Iraq by September

Published: 12/11/2005, 08:54 (UAE)
Japanese troops to quit Iraq by September
By Tom Clifford, Assistant Editor, International Dubai :
Japan is to withdraw it troops from Iraq by September.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has promised senior party figures that the soldiers, currently stationed in Samawah on the banks of the Euphrates in southern Iraq, will have left by the time he steps down.

Despite winning a a landslide victory in September, Koizumi has promised to leave office in September 2006.

Koizumi "intends to seek closure while he is still in office because he is the one who decided to dispatch the troops", a government official said. The first batch of troops will leave Samawah within the first three months of 2006.

Operations

A Tokyo defence official denied that the withdrawal was a blow to the coalition. "Since our troops' activities are not directly linked with security duties, other countries' operations won't be influenced if the troops are pulled out."

Japan has stationed ground troops in Samawah since early 2004. Their humanitarian mission is scheduled to end on December 14, but Koizumi is expected to extend it by six months to a year to cover the period up to September. Currently, about 500 troops are in the city.

Tokyo has already concluded that a ground force withdrawal would take about three months to complete.

However, Tokyo will retain a military presence in the area with a fleet of helicopters to continue transporting humanitarian goods and US military supplies between Kuwait and southern Iraq.

Tokyo is actively considering expanding its air transport services to other parts of Iraq but no decision is likely until next spring.

Public facilities

The Japanese forces in Samawah have concentrated on restoring public facilities such as schools and supplying water for residents.

They arrived in Iraq under the Law Concerning the Special Measures on Humanitarian and Reconstruction Assistance. This law, which cleared the constitutional path for troop deployment barred until then by the pacifist constitution, expires on December 14. The constitution prohibits Japanese forces being deployed in combat zones. By a stretch of interpretation, Samawah was defined by Tokyo as a non-combat zone.

The government is set to extend the deadline, but Koizumi's announcement of this decision will likely be delayed until December.

If the six-month extension is agreed, it would be legally acceptable for some troops to stay in Iraq until September, as long as they start pulling out within the half-year period.

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