2-17-05, 7:55 am
From Akahata
The number of countries that deploy troops in Iraq will decrease from 37 to 20. The U.S. Bush administration is trying to dissuade them from withdrawing from Iraq but has been unable to change the trend toward withdrawal. This is because the lack of justification for he war against Iraq and the continuance of the occupation has become clear, and calls for withdrawal are spreading in many countries.
Japan should stop its deployment of the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq in support of the U.S. war of occupation. The government has justified the dispatch by explaining that it is part of humanitarian and reconstruction assistance. Given the fact that Japan's official development assistance (ODA) is making progress in Iraq, there is no need for the SDF to be stationed in Iraq.
Use ODA to support
The government sent the SDF to Iraq on the grounds that 'Samawah is a non-combat area, but the security situation there is unpredictable, making it inappropriate for civilians to carry out activities'. In Samawah the SDF has been supplying water-wagons waiting outside the SDF camp with water which they pumped up from a canal and purified. They also did some repairs at elementary and middle schools and paved roads with gravel. SDF medical personnel have taken part in the Samawah general hospital meetings for case studies.
SDF personnel purify 80 tons of water per day to supply 4 or 5 liters each to about 16,000 Samawah residents, 10 percent of the city's population. A French NGO ACTED supplies 100,000 people with 1,000 to 2,000 tons per day, or ten to twenty liters per person, though its annual budget is as small as 60 million yen. Obviously, the SDF budget of 40 billion yen to supply fewer people with less water is extremely inefficient.
On January 17, two water purifiers were installed in Samawah as part of an ODA scheme known as 'Grant Assistance for Grassroots and Human Security Projects.' One purifier can supply 35 tons of clean water per hour. If two sets are operated five hours a day, they can supply 350 tons a day. These purifiers can be more effective than the SDF in supplying water to Samawah residents. Iraq's local firms completed them under a contract with the Muthana Province Waterworks Bureau with help from Japan's ODA.
The Japanese government maintains that Samawah is not a 'combat zone.' If that is the case, why didn't the government seek to rely on ODA to supply water? New facilities were established when Samawah's security was increasingly worsening. The government said that only the SDF can do this work. But this explanation has turned out to be false and was only aimed at justifying the SDF deployment to Iraq.
The government is boasting that the SDF could gravel a road for 15.65 kilometers in Samawah. However, after the graveling is over, the government decided to pave the road with asphalt, and on January 4 it sent 130 million yen in grant assistance to the Samawah City Public Health Department to this end. The government can no longer insist that only the SDF can handle assistance in Iraq's reconstruction.
SDF activities associated with U.S. and British forces
The government only emphasizes 'humanitarian assistance' when it explains about SDF missions in Iraq. However, the core of its mission defined in the 'Law Concerning the Special Measures on Humanitarian and Reconstruction Assistance in Iraq' is to support U.S. forces through mopping-up operations. The Air SDF unit has repeatedly transported U.S. military personnel. The Ground SDF camp in Samawah was attacked because SDF units are regarded as U.S. and British allies. Some point out that the planned stationing of British forces in Samawah will imperil the SDF.
All humanitarian assistance in Iraq's reconstruction must be non-military. The SDF must be withdrawn from Iraq without delay.
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