Japan Press Weekly

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2007 September 26 - October 2 [SDF]

MSDF is supporting war of retaliation: Shii

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo said that Japan’s Self-Defense Forces have been deployed in the Indian Ocean to assist the U.S. war of retaliation.

Shii made the remark at a news conference in the Diet building on September 27 in answer to a question concerning what the JCP will say to the public on the government policy of extending the SDF operation in the Inidian Ocean, the biggest item on the agenda in the current extraordinary session of the Diet.

Pointing out that Defense Minister Ishiba Shigeru on a TV program aired earlier in the day described the Maritime SDF activities in the Indian Ocean based on the anti-terrorism special measures law as “support to the effort to block terrorists on the ocean,” Shii criticized Ishiba for making it sound as if the MSDF were taking part in police activities.

Shii also stated that Harrier fighter jets taking off from the U.S. amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima, refueled by the MSDF supply ship Mashu, took part in air strikes in Afghanistan. “The bombing missions killed women, children, and old people. It is important to make known to a wider range of people that the anti-terrorism special measures law is a ‘law to support the war of retaliation’,” he said.

The JCP chair also said, “The other important point is that the war of retaliation cannot eradicate terrorism.” Stating that killing innocent people will only incite more acts of terrorism, he said, “What is needed are efforts to eliminate the causes of terrorism, including poverty, drought, hunger, and lack of education, as well as to work on problems in the Middle East and other regional conflicts peacefully and diplomatically.”

Shii said, “The JCP will carry out discussions and activities to reveal these two points before the public: that the SDF is supporting the war of retaliation and that terrorism cannot be eradicated by war.”