3 Japan GSDF Members to Join Syria Chemical Weapons Disposal

Tokyo, Nov. 19 (Jiji Press)--Japan will send three Ground Self-Defense Force members to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is working to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday. Since the OPCW has adopted a detailed plan for the elimination of Syria's chemical weapons, Japan aims to demonstrate its active involvement in the process. Kishida announced the dispatch plan at a news conference. The three GSDF members to be dispatched to the civil war-torn Middle East country once worked at the OPCW as inspectors. When they will start their mission has yet to be determined, but they are to join work to verify whether chemical weapons are appropriately transported out of Syria and destroyed. In September, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution obliging Syria to scarp chemical weapons. The plan the OPCW adopted last Friday demands most critical chemicals, including materials for sarin nerve gas, be transported out of Syria by the end of 2013 and the other substances be removed from the country by early February of 2014. The plan calls for completing the destruction of all chemical materials by the end of June 2014. The Japanese government has studied its assistance for the OPCW, with a senior Foreign Ministry official seeing equipment supply or a personnel dispatch as one of options. Besides the GSDF personnel dispatch, it plans to consider financial assistance for the OPCW's plan, officials said. END