Don't be at U.S. beck and call in sending SDF to Iraq: JCP Shii

Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Shii Kazuo used his House of Representatives Budget Committee questioning on October 1st to expose the government plan to hastily dispatch the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq. The government is succumbing to U.S. pressure, he said.

Referring to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's criticism of the preemptive attack strategy in his statement at the U.N. General Assembly on September 23, Shii asked Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro if he recognizes Annan's criticism as being directed at the United States.

Koizumi replied that the U.S. war on Iraq was in compliance with the U.N. Charter, stating that it is "a matter of difference of opinion".

Quoting the statement Annan made to the effect that assertion of preemptive attack is "a fundamental challenge to the principle on which world peace and stability have rested", Shii said, "It is common sense to recognize that the U.S. war is in violation of the U.N. Charter," and again asked the prime minister if he still refuses to regard Annan statement as a criticism of the United States.

Koizumi replied, "I would refer your question to Mr. Annan."

Shii also pointed out that Koizumi has made two contradictory statements regarding the dispatch of the SDF to Iraq. On July 25, he stated that Japan may opt to not send the SDF to Iraq depending on the situation there. But in a televised statement on September 8, he said that Japan has no option but to send the SDF.

Koizumi was unable to explain why he made the 180 degree change. Shii then stated, "I tell you what. The shift came after U.S. pressured Japan." He pointed out that U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in late August threatened Japan by saying, "Don't walk away. This is not a tea party."

"While obstinately refusing to acknowledge that the Annan statement was a criticism of the United States, though not by name, the Japanese government is rushing to send SDF units to Iraq. This total subservience to the United States must end now," Shii said. (end)