MSDF ships dispatched to Indian Ocean

The government on November 9 approved sending Japan's military vessels to take part in the U.S.-led retaliatory war against Afghanistan. Three Maritime Self-Defense Force ships, including two destroyers, the Kirishima and the Kurama left the MSDF Sasebo Naval Base in Nagasaki Prefecture for the Indian Ocean.

The dispatch plan was adopted although cabinet approval of the basic plan was yet to be finalized regarding the implementation of the Law to send the Self-Defense Forces abroad under the pretext of "information gathering."

The three MSDF ships will arrive at the British island of Diego Garcia around November 20. The second group chiefly composed of suppliers will leave Japan at the end of November.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo said, "The government decision is doubly wrong: first, it has been made clearer day by day that the U.S.-led retaliatory war is bogged down in a quagmire. Second, the MSDF ships were dispatched in defiance of the Constitution, which has never been attempted in the postwar period."

"The government must stop deploying SDF units to the war. As a country with Article 9 of the Constitution which calls for non-military steps to settle international disputes, it should rather take an active initiative to end the war," he added.

The SDF units dispatch law requires the cabinet to decide on a basic plan by November 16. The dispatch of the MSDF vessels was implemented under Article 5 of the Defense Agency Establishment Law. (end)