Government must examine U.N. inspectors' report in its entirety: JCP

A Japanese Communist Party member of parliament criticized the government for turning its back on international anti-war opinion calling for United Nations weapons inspections to be continued in Iraq.

In the Lower House Budget Committee meeting on February 18, Kijima Hideo of the JCP questioned the Koizumi Cabinet on Iraq, stating that international opinion is in favor of continued weapons inspections.

Foreign Minister Kawaguchi Yoriko in reply said, "Given inadequate cooperation by Iraq, we doubt the effectiveness of continued inspections."

Rejecting the foreign minister's view, Kijima stated, "Hans Blix, chief inspector of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), reported that 'all inspections were performed without notice, access was almost always provided promptly'." He was thus stressing the effectiveness of weapons inspections.


Referring to the Iraqi government's presentation of a list of the names of scientists who took part in the destruction of weapons of mass destruction, Kijima criticized the government for denying the effectiveness of the inspections by singling out the inspectors' critical remarks on Iraq, instead of examining the report in its entirety.

Asked by Kijima about the rationale in international law behind the United States' insistence on using force even without a U.N. resolution, Foreign Minister Kawaguchi said, "It would be logical to say that U.N. Resolution 678 can be effective."

Kijima reminded the foreign minister that resolution 678 was adopted to deal with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and said that common sense does not accept a resolution on a past war (the Gulf War) to be used again.

The JCP Dietmember demanded that the government reject the U.S. use of force and call for continued and even strengthened U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq. (end)