Tokyo: Japan ordered the withdrawal of its ground troops from Iraq on Tuesday, declaring the humanitarian mission a success and ending a groundbreaking dispatch that tested the limits of its pacifist postwar constitution.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said the 600 non-combat troops - deployed in early 2004 - had helped rebuild infrastructure in the area where they were based, and he pledged further aid to Iraqi reconstruction.
''Today we have decided to withdraw Ground Self-Defense Forces from the Samawah region in Iraq,'' Koizumi said in a nationally televised news conference. ''The humanitarian dispatch has achieved its mission.''
The withdrawal was decided in consultation with the United States and other allies, Koizumi said. Defense chief Fukushiro Nukaga told reporters earlier in the day that the pullout would take ''several dozen days.''
Koizumi has been a vocal supporter of US policy in Iraq, arguing that the deployment was needed to aid reconstruction, secure oil supplies and bolster ties with Washington. He travels to Washington for a summit with President Bush later this month.
Japan, which hosts 50,000 US troops under a security treaty, will continue to stand with Washington, said Koizumi, who steps down in September.
''Japan's policy to cooperate with the US based on the importance of the Japan-US alliance has never changed and will not change,'' he said.
The operation constituted Japan's largest and most dangerous overseas military mission since the end of World War II. While concerns for the troops' safety were high, the region they were based in was relatively peaceful. As security deteriorated, they were largely confined to their base.
Tokyo will now consider expanding air operations in Iraq to include transport of medical supplies and UN personnel, following a request from UN General-Secretary Kofi Annan, said Takenori Kanzaki, head of the ruling party's coalition partner, the New Komei Party.
''Even after the withdrawal from Iraq, we must continue the efforts to support Iraq,'' Kanzaki told reporters.
The troops' top tasks were purifying water and repairing schools, but he soldiers also patched roads and strengthened medical services. Koizumi said their work created jobs for the local economy.
Although the mission is strictly non-combat and humanitarian, the deployment broke new ground as a symbol of Tokyo's more assertive military policy.
The move to withdraw followed the announcement on Monday that Britain and Australia would hand over responsibility for security to Iraqi forces in southern Muthana province, where the Japanese troops are based.
That apparently was the signal to Tokyo that is was time to go. Japan has been concerned that its troops could be drawn into the fighting in Iraq.
Nukaga ordered the withdrawal to begin later Tuesday. The Yomiuri newspaper reported the target for completing the pullout was the end of July.
Polls showed half or more of the Japanese public opposed the mission, and many were concerned about the safety of troops in Iraq and the possibility that the dispatch would make Japan a target of terrorists.
Critics also said the dispatch violated the US-drafted 1947 constitution, which foreswears the use of force to settle international disputes.
The Iraq mission followed a dispatch of Japanese ships to offer logistical support for military action in Afghanistan.
Comments
0 comment