KUWAIT/IRAQ: JAPANESE TROOPS ARRIVE IN SOUTHERN IRAQ TO BEGIN THEIR CONTROVERSIAL AND RISKY DEPLOYMENT

Record ID: 859252

  • Title: KUWAIT/IRAQ: JAPANESE TROOPS ARRIVE IN SOUTHERN IRAQ TO BEGIN THEIR CONTROVERSIAL AND RISKY DEPLOYMENT
  • Date: 19th January 2004
  • Summary: (U6)SAMAWA, IRAQ (JANUARY 19, 2004) (REUTERS) (NIGHT TIME VIEWS) VARIOUS: JAPANESE MILITARY CONVOY ARRIVING AT BASE (3 SHOTS) SOUNDBITE (Japanese) MASAHISA SATO, HEAD OF THE ADVANCE PARTY COLONEL , SAYING: "I am Issa (Masahisa) Sato, of the advance party. We have finally arrived in Samawa and we are looking forward to take on our mission. The job of the troops involves collecting information necessary to carry out our tasks, to secure safety, carry out activities related to humanitarian efforts and liaising with organisations already established here. We hope that through our mission we will improve relations between the Iraqi people and Japan." SOUNDBITE (English) MASAHISA SATO, HEAD OF THE ADVANCE PARTY COLONEL , SAYING: "... and the reconstruction mission such as water purification and (indistinct) the water and medical support and construction support as a first stage." / MEMBERS OF JAPANESE ADVANCE PARTY LEAVING/ COALITION FORCES SOLDIERS
  • Embargoed: 3rd February 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KUWAIT-IRAQ BORDER; ROUTE TO SAMAWA AND SAMAWA, IRAQ
  • City:
  • Country: Iraq Kuwait
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAN5JJZHKEJOE4JDMY09JGR16D
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Japanese troops have arrived in Iraq from Kuwait to begin Japan's most controversial and risky deployment since World War Two.
    Japanese troops arrived in southern Iraq on Monday (January 19) to begin Japan's most controversial and risky deployment since World War Two.
    An advance party of around 35 soldiers who will prepare the ground for the likely deployment of about 1,000 troops arrived at the Dutch military camp in Samawa at 9 p.m.

    (1800 GMT) after crossing the border from Kuwait eight hours earlier.
    "We have finally arrived in Samawa and we are looking forward to take on our mission," said Masahisa Satoh, Head of the Advance Party. "The job of the troops involves collecting information necessary to carry out our tasks, to secure safety, carry out activities related to humanitarian efforts and liaising with organisations already established here. We hope that through our mission we will improve relations between the Iraqi people and Japan," he added.
    Samawa is a mainly Shi'ite town 300 km (175 miles) south of Baghdad.
    The dispatch marks a historic shift away from Japan's purely defensive postwar security policy and poses a huge political risk for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, whose government could be rocked if, as many expect, casualties occur.
    Japanese public opinion is divided over Koizumi's decision to send troops to Iraq but he defended the dispatch in a speech prepared for the opening of a new session of parliament.
    The troops will be based in the mainly Shi'ite southern city of Samawa, where they will conduct reconstruction and humanitarian operations.
    If Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba judges the area safe after team members report back, he will likely order the main body of troops to set off from late January.
    A law enacted last July allows the troop dispatch, but in line with Japan's pacifist constitution, limits the military's activity to "non-combat zones", a murky concept in Iraq, which continues to see daily attacks on occupying troops.
    No member of Japan's military has fired a shot in combat or been killed in an overseas mission since World War Two, although Japanese forces have taken part in United Nations operations since a 1992 law made that possible.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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