Ground SDF core unit leaves for Samawah

Urged by the U.S. to assist occupation forces in Iraq, the first 90-member group of the main unit of the Ground Self-Defense Force on February 3 left Chitose Air Base in Hokkaido for Samawah in southern Iraq. The unit will join the GSDF advance team to engage in building camps for other GSDF units expected to leave Japan in February and March.

Commenting on the dispatch in the Diet Building, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi said that the SDF must not go.

Ichida said:

"It has become clearer that the Iraq War is unjustifiable and that any operations by the SDF in Iraq will be under the command of occupation forces. This goes against the constitutional principle renouncing the right of belligerency. In pushing the GSDF dispatch, a serious legal matter for Japan, the government is deceiving the public and undermining parliamentary democracy.

"Shutting their eyes to much evidence shown in the Diet regarding the SDF dispatch plan, the government arbitrarily cut short the discussion in the House of Representatives.

"Specifically, the revelation of the crucial fact that the Samawah City Council has been dissolved brought to light false answers by the government, showing irresponsibility.

"Some say that the government is negligent in explaining the matter, but the reality is that it can hardly explain its decision because both the war and the SDF dispatch lack any cause." (end)