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Japan opposition vows to pull troops from Iraq by December
TOKYO - Japanâs main opposition party plans to pull the countryâs troops from the U.S.-led reconstruction effort in Iraq by December if voted into government in next monthâs nationwide elections, a party official said on Tuesday.The campaign pledge is part of a detailed platform the Democratic Party will unveil later in the day as it tries to tap public opposition to the military dispatch and unseat the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in lower house parliamentary polls on Sept. 11. The plan calls for withdrawing Japanâs 500 troops from the southern Iraqi city of Samawah by December, party official Toshiaki Oikawa said, declining to give other details. The troops are part of a total deployment of 1,000 Self-Defense soldiers dispatched to the region to purify water and repair public works as part of the U.S.-led coalition rebuilding Iraq. The Democratic Party is trying to shift the focus of the upcoming elections away from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumiâs plans to privatize the countryâs postal savings system and focus on issues it thinks resonate better with voters, such as Iraq and government spending. Japan should step up economic aid to Iraq in lieu of sending troops, Oikawa said. Koizumi sent the first installment of troops on a noncombat, humanitarian mission in January 2004, the countryâs largest and most dangerous military mission since World War II. Koizumi argued that Japan - as an oil-dependent nation - had to bear its share of the burden of rebuilding Iraq and combating terrorism, while supporting its top ally, the United States. But there is strong public opposition to the dispatch from fears that it could draw Tokyo into the turmoil in Iraq. An Associated Press-Kyodo poll in July found that 55 percent of Japanese dislike their governmentâs handling of Iraq. Posted by: Steve White 2005-08-16 |
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