Commentary: Japan has an axe to grind
( 2003-07-30 07:08) (China Daily)
Despite a
last-ditch protest by all the opposition parties, Japan's Upper House approved a
controversial bill on Saturday to send the Self-Defence Forces (SDF) to help
rebuild Iraq.
Under the new law, which is valid for four years, Japan
will dispatch some 1,000 of its SDF soldiers to Iraq in October. Their role will
be to provide logistics support to the United States and British forces in
humanitarian relief, reconstruction efforts and peacekeeping
operations.
The new law, for the first time, enables Japan to send its
SDF troops overseas to an occupied country where war has not yet officially
ended at the request of the occupying authorities, and not the country's
government.
Tokyo defines the objective of the Iraq assistance law as
helping bring stability and democracy to the war-ravaged country.
But is
there any specific need to utilize the SDF in the rebuilding operations, which
is banned under the peace principles of its own Constitution, not to mention the
justification for the US-led invasion of Iraq, a still hotly contested
issue?
Under Article 9 of its post-World War II Constitution, Japan
"forever renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use
of force.'' This provision has been traditionally interpreted as prohibiting the
nation from exercising the right to collective defence, including joint military
operations with US forces and collective security activities, such as United
Nations peace-keeping operations.
During the Diet -- the Japanese
parliament -- debate, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said SDF troops will stay
clear of combat zones and adhere to the rules of the non use of force.
With the US and allied casualties caused by guerrilla attacks in Iraq
occurring almost daily, it will be difficult to distinguish combat from
noncombat zones amid the volatile Iraqi situation. Furthermore, there is no
assurance, for now at least, that the SDF personnel will not get bogged down in
combat-like scenarios where lurking dangers could necessitate the use of
force.
The basic question, therefore, is what role the SDF should play?
Koizumi reportedly told the Diet following the enactment of the Iraq law that a
permanent law should be established to define the role of the SDF in its
overseas peacekeeping operations.
Since the end of the Cold War Japan has
been expanding its military role overseas, in particular under the banner of
fighting terrorism, since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the
US.
To build confidence among its Asian neighbours, Japan needs to
rethink its security policies on expanding its international
presence.
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