JCP Ichida: Don't remove restrictions on activities under PKO Cooperation Law

Ichida Tadayoshi, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat head criticized
the three ruling parties for agreeing to propose lifting the ban of the
Self-Defense Forces' participation in United Nations peace-keeping
operations.

The ruling Liberal Democratic, Komei, and New Conservative parties on
November 12 agreed to submit a bill to amend the U.N. Peace-keeping
Operations (PKO) Cooperation Law. They want to lift clauses that prohibit
the SDF from participating in a U.N. Peace-keeping force and to relax
restrictions on the use of arms by SDF personnel.

At a news conference held on November 12 after the ruling parties reached
an agreement on revising the five principles of the PKO Cooperation Law,
Ichida said, "They are breaking the promise they made when the PKO
Cooperation Law was enacted."

Under the present PKO Cooperation Law, the SDF can only be involved in
U.N. peace-keeping activities after a cease-fire agreement goes into effect
between the parties concerned and when the country agrees to accept the SDF.

In an NHK political debate program broadcast on November 11, Yamasaki
Taku, LDP secretary general, said that in Afghanistan it would be difficult
to identify parties in dispute, indicating the need to ease these
restrictions on Japan's participation in U.N. peace-keeping operations.

The JCP Secretariat head said Yamasaki was trying to use as much as
possible the terrorist attacks on the U.S. to give the government freedom to
dispatch SDF units abroad, so that the SDF will be able to operate more
freely and use or threat to use weapons. Such an opportunistic move can
never be allowed, Ichida stressed. (end)