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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

'Withdraw SDF from Iraq': JCP Ichida

Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro on December 4 met Defense Agency Director General Nukaga Fukushiro and suggested extending the term of Self-Defense Forces deployment in Iraq by one year. Nukaga has just returned from a visit to Samawah, Iraq, where the SDF units are stationed.

Contrary to the government argument that the security situation in Iraq is stable, a Ground SDF armored vehicle's side mirror was broken when stones were thrown at it by demonstrators and an Iraqi guard's automatic rifle was almost seized by someone in Samawah.

However, the government in a cabinet meeting on December 8 will decide to extend the term of the SDF dispatch to Iraq, which will expire on December 14.

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on December 5 at the press conference in the Diet stated:

"The JCP is opposed to the government's plan to continue to keep SDF units in Iraq, which only serves the unlawful U.S. military occupation of Iraq. The government should immediately withdraw the SDF units from Iraq by rejecting U.S. pressure on Japan to unconditionally obey."

Criticizing the government for its Iraqi policy, Ichida pointed out that: (1) more than 70 percent of respondents in public surveys expressed opposition to the extension of the SDF dispatch in Iraq; (2) more than 2,100 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq, and more Americans are opposing the occupation and calling for U.S. withdrawal; (3) British and Australian troops now in Samawah reportedly will be withdrawn next May.

Ichida said, "Prime Minister Koizumi's statement that the SDF units in Samawah are definitely engaged in "humanitarian missions" within "non-combat zones" cannot stand up to the facts. Samawah's SDF camp has been fired upon 11 times and SDF vehicles have been shot at, recently demonstrators surrounded SDF vehicles and threw stones at them, and the GSDF's water supply operations ended last February and Samawah's people began asking the SDF, "For what purpose and for whom are you staying here?"

"The need now is for the Japanese government to take steps to immediately withdraw the SDF units from Iraq and reevaluate its Iraq policy so that Japan may fully cooperate with Iraq's rehabilitation undertaken by the United Nations and NGOs," Ichida stressed.
- Akahata, December 6, 2005