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Posted on 07/18/2003 10:30:07 AM PDT by knighthawk
The three ruling parties in Japan agreed Friday to pass a bill on Wednesday that will allow the government to dispatch military forces to Iraq to assist in reconstruction work, moving the schedule up two days.
According to Kyodo News, the parliamentary affairs chiefs of the Liberal Democratic Party, the New Komeito party and the New Conservative Party decided to ask the House of Councillors to vote on the bill at the committee level on Tuesday and at its plenary session on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Japanese Premier Junichiro Koizumi was harshly criticized on Friday for his support to the U.S. invasion to Iraq.
Koizumi was forced to answer questions in parliament ahead of an upcoming visit by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who himself has been criticized for his support for George Bush's decision to launch the war against Iraq. "The prime minister asserted that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, supported the U.S. military action and justified the Iraq war," said Naoto Kan, head of the Democratic Party, Japan's leading opposition party, according to Reuters. "What is the ground for your assertion?," he asked.
On his turn, the Japanese prime minister said the war was justified because Saddam Hussein's regime had used weapons of mass destruction in the past.
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Nah, it's bigger news than that!
By KENJI HALL, Associated Press Writer
TOKYO - Lawmakers voted Friday to send Japanese forces to Iraq to help with reconstruction, despite delaying tactics by the opposition that deteriorated into a wild shoving match.
The passage of the bill was a victory for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who campaigned hard to send peacekeeping troops overseas as he seeks to raise Japan's profile on the world stage.
He also aims to distance his administration from the "checkbook diplomacy" for which Japan, the world's second-richest nation, was criticized during the 1991 Gulf War.
Opposition parties criticized the legislation, saying such peacekeeping missions could violate Japan's pacifist constitution and put troops in the line of enemy fire.
The bill had already passed an upper-house committee with support from Koizumi's three-party coalition, which controls a majority in both chambers of Parliament. The full 247-seat upper house convened after midnight, voting 136 in favor and 102 against the bill.
During the committee meeting, outraged opposition legislators shouted and tried to push their way through a ring of ruling party lawmakers to get at the committee chairman, who had cut short the debate. The chairman called a vote amid the grappling and tackling.
The opposition had tried to stall passage of the legislation for days, submitting one censure motion after another against Koizumi, his Cabinet ministers and other ruling party officials in Parliament with long filibuster-style speeches and slow-motion voting.
Koizumi's ruling party had vowed Friday to convene Parliament over the weekend if necessary to ensure the legislation passed before the parliament session ends next Monday.
The peacekeeping bill allows Japanese ground troops to provide non-combat support for U.S.-led forces in Iraq. It also gives the government power to send forces to trouble spots around the world to offer medical assistance, repatriate refugees, reconstruct buildings and roads and give administrative advice — even on missions without United Nations support.
Military planners are reportedly considering up to 1,000 combat engineers and other troops for transport and construction duties in Iraq.
Small Japanese military contingents have participated in several U.N. peacekeeping operations since 1992, most recently in East Timor.
The United States and close ally Britain are having mixed success in recruiting help in Iraq. France, Germany and India have declined to take part. There are currently about 147,000 U.S. troops and 13,000 troops from other countries in Iraq.
U.S. officials have expressed hope that Pakistan and Turkey will also join.
As you can see, this decision was harder than you might have expected:
Opposition lawmakers swarm to a chairman to stop the passage of the Iraq bill forced by the ruling party lawmakers at the upper house in Tokyo Friday, July 25, 2003. The ruling party plans to approve the Iraq bill which enables for the Japanese government to dispatch Self-Defense Forces to Iraq to help reconstructing the war-torn country. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)
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Looks like quite a fight was put up to stop the bill from passing.
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