Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Japan should stay in Iraq, general says

|
|
 
  
Published: May 16, 2004 at 12:02 PM

TOKYO, May 16 (UPI) -- A Japanese general who heads the country's Defense Agency says Japan should continue its presence in Iraq.

"In any case, we must continue our activities" in Iraq, Kyodo news service quoted the director, Gen. Shigeru Ishiba, as saying. Japan dispatched 530 troops to Samawah in southern Iraq, where they are helping to purify water, provide medical aid and rebuild roads.

They were sent there under a special Japanese law that restricts the troops' activities to non-combat areas.

Ishiba was asked about whether Japan would participate in a U.N. multinational force under a new U.N. resolution.

"It would depend on how the new U.N. resolution turns out, but it's not to say that Japan cannot participate just because it is a multinational force," Ishiba said on Fuji Television Network.

He acknowledged that security in Samawah has deteriorated.

"It cannot be denied that security has worsened, but the people in Samawah are not supporting them," he said, referring to the insurgents. "The Dutch forces are fulfilling their responsibility of maintaining security in Samawah."

Japan's Constitution forbids the use of troops in a military offensive.

Topics: Shigeru Ishiba
© 2004 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters
Passenger jet crashes into apartment building in Nigerian capitol. Over 150 princes, bank officials,...
I'll see your zombie apocalypse, and raise you "swarms of deadly spiders" invading a town in India...