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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Seoul and Tokyo will not join Manila in troop pullout |
| 2004-07-15 |
| Asian states with troops in Iraq looked set to keep them there yesterday despite the Philippines’ capitulation to hostage-taking Muslim militants yesterday. Like the Philippines, South Korea and Japan are United States allies which had bucked opposition at home to contribute troops to Iraq. But Seoul and Tokyo endured hostage crises without changing their policies on Iraq. A foreign ministry spokesman in Tokyo reaffirmed the 500 Japanese troops would remain in Iraq to rebuild schools, provide medical supplies and supply clean water. ’We consider it important to continue activity’ in Iraq, she said. Iraqi militants had captured three Japanese civilians in April and threatened to kill them unless Japan withdrew the troops. But Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi refused to budge and the three hostages, along with two others taken separately, were later released. In Seoul, a South Korean government official who requested anonymity also said there was ’no change’ to the government’s position, in view of sensitivities, on sending 3,000 troops to Iraq next month. Seoul is still reeling from the beheading last month of a South Korean interpreter by militants in Iraq after the government rejected the kidnappers’ demand that it scrap the deployment and pull out about 600 military engineers and medics who have been working in the Middle-Eastern country since last year. But in the Philippines - where the fate of truck driver Angelo de la Cruz, a father of eight, has gripped the nation - people praised the government’s decision to withdraw the troops as demanded by his hostage-takers before their deployment was scheduled to end on Aug 20. ’That’s good. The sooner the better,’ said Mr Teddy Casino of the left-wing Bayan Muna party, a strong opponent of President Gloria Arroyo’s decision to send troops to Iraq in the first place. Mr de la Cruz’s family celebrated the announcement with a hearty breakfast of fish and fried chicken in their home province of Pampanga. ’We are happy that they are pulling out the troops already in exchange for my brother’s freedom,’ said Mr Feliciano de la Cruz, brother of the captive. ’We’re thankful to the President if they will indeed be pulled out. And once they complete the pullout, the captors should give my brother to the President.’ But Ms Lourdes Ruba, a Filipino worker in Hong Kong, worried that the government has set a bad precedent in dealing with terrorists. Another woman said there are no guarantees about how the Iraqi insurgents will respond. ’They can still behead the man,’ said jeweller Erma Leung, 40. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |