Japan PM announces Iraq troop withdrawal

By Linda Sieg

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan has decided to withdraw its troops
from Iraq, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced on
Tuesday, ending the Japanese military’s riskiest and most
ambitious overseas mission since World War Two.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday his
forces would take over security from July in the southern
province of Muthanna, where the British oversee a multinational
contingent that includes Japanese troops.

Japan’s troop dispatch — a symbol of Tokyo’s willingness
to put “boots on the ground” for its close ally, the United
States, and to take a bigger global security role — won praise
from Washington. But it was opposed by many at home including
critics who said the dispatch violated Japan’s pacifist
constitution.

The decision to withdraw comes ahead of Koizumi’s visit to
Washington for talks with President George W. Bush in late June
and the end of his term as ruling party president, and hence as
prime minister, in September.

No Japanese soldiers have been killed or wounded in Iraq,
but Koizumi faced a political crisis in 2004 when three
Japanese civilians were taken hostage by insurgents. The three,
as well as two others taken hostage later, were released
unharmed.

In all, six Japanese citizens, including two diplomats,
have been killed by insurgents in Iraq.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said the troops had won
high marks for their military discipline.

“I think such views have made a very big contribution to
improving the brand image of Japan as a country,” he told a
news conference ahead of the official announcement.

Japan had said its withdrawal from the southern city of
Samawa would have to be coordinated with the British and
Australian governments, whose troops have been providing
security for the roughly 550 Japanese non-combat troops there.

Japan’s military activities overseas are limited by its
pacifist constitution, although the government has been
stretching those restrictions in recent years.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the Australian
troops would keep “looking after the Japanese until the
Japanese have gone, and I expect that to be quite soon.”

In Canberra, Defense Minister Brendan Nelson said on
Tuesday that Australia would re-assign its 460 troops
protecting Japanese forces to help the Iraqi military secure
the border with Syria.

“It has the potential to be more dangerous for our
soldiers. We don’t underestimate the risk,” he told reporters.

NORTH KOREA COINCIDENCE

Koizumi had stressed the need to back the United States in
Iraq to ensure Washington comes to Japan’s aid in the event of
an attack by its unpredictable neighbor, communist North Korea.

The announcement coincides with assessments by some
officials that North Korea may be poised to launch a missile
that some experts say could reach as far as Alaska.

North Korea shocked Japan and the rest of the world in 1998
when it launched a missile, part of which flew over Japan.

After the withdrawal of ground troops, Japan intends to
expand the mission of its air force planes based in Kuwait to
include airlifting of United Nations staff, said Takenori
Kanzaki, head of Koizumi’s junior coalition partner New Komeito
party.

Japan decided to send ground troops to Iraq in December
2003, and the first major contingent arrived in February 2004.

Since then, they have been engaged in reconstruction work
such as repairing buildings and providing medical training.

(Additional reporting by Masayuki Kitano in Tokyo and James
Grubel in CANBERRA)