Bill to support U.S.-British forces in Iraq must be foiled: JCP lawmakers

The House of Representatives started discussing two bills concerning the overseas deployment of the Self-Defense Forces on June 25. Japanese Communist Party lawmakers used their question-time in the Lower House plenary session on the same day to express opposition to the two unconstitutional bills, one to send the SDF to assist the U.S.-British occupation forces in Iraq and the other to extend the special law on anti-terrorism measures.

The government explanation on the bill to dispatch SDF units to Iraq was challenged by JCP Kijima Hideo, who pointed out that "the core of the bill is for Japan to endorse the unlawful war on Iraq and assist in the occupation by sending SDF personnel."

Pointing out that more than 50 U.S. personnel have been killed in Iraq since May 1, Kijima stressed that dispatching the SDF to Iraq is completely in violation of Article 9 of the Constitution banning the threat and use of force and the right to belligerency.

The task is now for Japan to do as much as possible to help reconstruct Iraq under U.N. initiative, Kijima emphasized.

On the issue of transport by the SDF in support of the occupation forces, Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro answered that it would not mean that Japan would use force.

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Kodama Kenji of the JCP expressed opposition to the government bill to extend by two years the Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Law which expires on November 1.

Kodama pointed out that Retaliatory wars can never eliminate the hotbed of terrorism; that the government neglected to report to the Diet how the SDF have acted under the special measures law; and that the U.S. forces have referred to their withdrawal from Afghanistan before the summer of 2004, making the law's extension unnecessary.

The question of terrorism should be resolved through cooperation among international judiciary and police organizations, Kodama insisted. (end)