Ruling parties move to revise law to send more SDF units abroad

The three ruling parties are seeking a revision to the United Nations Peace Keeping Operations Law in the current extraordinary Diet session to give the Self-Defense Forces expanded roles abroad.

The bill is intended to reinforce the recently enacted law to send the Self-Defense Forces abroad to take part in the U.S.-led retaliatory war, the first postwar legislation to enable the SDF to participate in wars in contravention of the Constitution.

The centerpiece of the proposal is lifting the "freeze" on SDF participation in U.N. peacekeeping forces (PKF). Contrary to the LDP argument that lifting the "freeze" is to allow the sending of SDF units to East Timor next March, it is actually designed to deploy SDF units as part of Japan's involvement in the affairs of Afghanistan after the war's end.

In writing a draft of an amendment to the Peace-keeping Operation Cooperation Law, the LDP Defense Council's subcommittee called for partial changes in the five principles on SDF participation in PKO so that SDF can be deployed based on the consent of not only states concerned but also "groups effectively ruling the country." This means that SDF units can go to Afghanistan which may be without an official government after the war's end. It will enable SDF units to monitor the process of disarming the Taliban forces and inspect vehicles in transit.

This runs counter even to the government view that it is difficult for SDF units to take part in a PKF that uses military force. With the revision of the PKO Cooperation Law, the government wants to dispatch SDF units that will engage in activities that may encounter armed conflicts anytime.

Another aim of amending the PKO Law is to ease restrictions on the use of weapons by SDF personnel in PKO, as established in the five principles. By applying the provisions of the SDF dispatch law, it insists that only the regulations on SDF personnel to carry small weapons be lifted, and that SDF units should guard not only SDF personnel but also soldiers of foreign troops and refugees.

In Diet debates on the SDF dispatch law, the government has affirmed the preemptive use of weapons by SDF personnel to prevent an urgent damage from occurring.

These amendments will increase the danger of SDF units being directly involved in combat abroad. The government is scheming to scrap the five principles on Japan's participation in PKO, which have originally been provided to avoid conflicting with the Constitution. (end)