Japan Mulls Additional SDF Role in U.N. Peacekeeping Mission

Tokyo, July 27 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government is considering giving another role to Self-Defense Forces troops in the U.N. Peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, or UNMISS, after new national security legislation is enacted and takes effect, Jiji Press learned on Monday. The government is looking at allowing the SDF troops to guard civilians working in a place away from its position, a government source said. Such an operation is currently banned under the peacekeeping operation cooperation law. The international peace cooperation law, which is part of the national security legislation and revises the current law, calls for relaxing Japan's rules on the use of weapons by SDF troops to allow the envisioned new role. The country's existing five principles on participation in U.N. peacekeeping missions call for limiting the use of weapons to the minimum required for protecting the lives of SDF troops themselves. In UNMISS, some 350 SDF troops are currently engaged in road and other infrastructure work in the South Sudanese capital of Juba. As the ongoing deployment period will expire at the end of August, the government plans to decide on an extension until the end of February, at a cabinet meeting in early August. Meanwhile, the security bills are now under parliamentary deliberations. The government aims to have them enacted by the end of the current parliamentary session. END