Japan Press Weekly

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2009 January 21 - 27 [SDF]

There is no legitimacy in sending MSDF ships to Somalia

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

The Liberal Democratic and Komai parties on January 22 held an anti-piracy project team meeting and agreed on sending Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels to the sea off Somalia in Africa as early as March.

The government is trying to justify the MSDF deployment to the region under Article 82 of the SDF Law. However, this is a provision concerning sea patrol and cannot be applied to the Somalia mission.

Maritime patrol is an action to be carried out in Japanese territorial waters or in the seas near Japan.

What the MSDF wants to do in the waters off the coast of Somalia in the name of anti-piracy operation has serious problems. The MSDF will not only guard Japanese-registered ships but also will have to protect Japanese crew or passengers on foreign vessels, Japanese cargo on ships of foreign registry, and other Japan-related ships.

The question of the use of arms is another problem. The use of weapons can be expanded to self-defense, emergency escape, and protection of MSDF vessels, actions that are in violation of the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution.

The government has already deployed the SDF to the Indian Ocean to support the U.S. war in Afghanistan under the pretext of counterterrorism. MSDF deployment to off Somalia, though using anti-piracy efforts as an excuse, will only help pave the way for more dispatches of troops on missions abroad.

It is said that the collapse of the Somali state due to the 20-year-long civil war had driven local fishermen into acts of piracy as a matter of survival after losing their livelihoods. When it comes to anti-piracy measures, what should be done is to make diplomatic efforts to help end the civil war and stabilize the local people’s livelihoods through policing actions against pirates.

The need is for Japan to support the Somali peace process, not promote unconstitutional dispatches of troops. It should help to improve the security capabilities of surrounding nations that include Yemen, and increase Japan’s assistance for such international organs as the International Maritime Organization seeking to reinforce their anti-piracy measures through legislative, judicial, and administrative approaches.