Japanese PM defends SDF dispatch to Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 22, 2004

Japanese PM defends SDF dispatch to Iraq

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Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Wednesday defended his dispatch of Self-Defense Forces (SDF) members after dismissing a call to resign by opposition leader Naoto Kan, who said the measure is unconstitutional.

Speaking at the House of Representatives, Kan, who heads the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), also criticized Koizumi on the little progress made in his structural reform programs.

The session marked the start of a three-day parliament debate on policy speeches Koizumi and three of his key cabinet ministers delivered Monday.

It was the first parliamentary debate since Japan sent the first small SDF team to Iraq last month.

"You largely violated the basic idea of the Constitution when you dispatched the SDF to Iraq, where fighting continues," Kan said, referring to an article of the Constitution which renounces war.

The DPJ voted last year against a special law allowing the government to send SDF personnel to Iraq to help rebuild the country.

The decision to send the SDF showed Koizumi does not have what it takes to be prime minister, Kan said.

Koizumi replied, "I don't find the activities of the SDF unconstitutional" since the reconstruction effort in Iraq is not war as a sovereign right of the nation, which the Constitution renounces.

Japan has dispatched small advance teams from the Air Self-Defense Force and the Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) to Iraq andplans to send core GSDF contingents there soon.

The LDP plans to draft next year a proposal to tailor the Constitution to modern Japanese society after reviewing various articles including the war-renouncing one.

Japan's Constitution has never been reworded since it took effect in 1947.

Source: Xinhua

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