Japan ready to have SDF join Haiti U.N. peacekeeping mission

TOKYO, Jan. 25 Kyodo -
The Japanese government decided Monday to send the Self-Defense Forces to join
a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti to provide humanitarian and
reconstruction aid following the devastating earthquake on Jan. 12.
The decision, made at a ministerial committee in Prime Minister Yukio
Hatoyama's government, is based on a U.N. Security Council resolution calling
for a boost in the number of personnel for the mission as well as U.N. requests
for member countries to participate, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano
said.
''We decided to dispatch them for peacekeeping operations as soon as possible
after thinking about what Japan can do,'' Hatoyama told reporters, adding that
he has gained understanding from his smaller coalition partners.
The government will notify the United Nations of its decision soon and plans to
make a formal decision at a Cabinet meeting after devising concrete plans.
The notification will relay Japan's readiness to send the SDF engineering unit
comprising about 300 personnel, Hirano told a press conference, adding the
actual number of personnel dispatched will be determined in consultation with
the United Nations.
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa formally instructed the SDF officers to ready
themselves to engage in the mission following the unanimous adoption of a
resolution last Tuesday by the U.N. Security Council to boost the number of
personnel for the mission, known as MINUSTAH, by 3,500 -- 1,500 police and
2,000 troops.
The MINUSTAH is the French acronym for the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti
which is in charge of peacekeeping operations.
Since the disaster, security has been rapidly deteriorating in the country,
which has long suffered from political instability, and dispatching the SDF
could come in conflict with Japan's five-point principles for participating in
peacekeeping missions.
One of the principles stipulates that a cease-fire must exist between parties
to a conflict.
But Hirano said Monday that the government views the situation in Haiti within
the parameters of the principles. A Defense Ministry official said the current
situation in Haiti does not involve armed conflicts by state or
quasi-government bodies and that conditions for the dispatch are met.
When dispatched, SDF personnel will carry such weapons as rifles and handguns
necessary to ensure their safety in line with other U.N. missions in which the
SDF have been involved, he said. Japan has taken part in U.N. peacekeeping
operations in Cambodia, the Golan Heights, Mozambique, East Timor, Nepal and
Sudan.
The personnel are expected to mostly engage in providing reconstruction
assistance, such as removing debris as well as building homes and roads.
At the day's ministerial committee, Mizuho Fukushima, leader of the Social
Democratic Party, one of the two small parties in the coalition government,
mentioned four conditions for the SDF dispatch, one of which is that if the
personnel got embroiled in a conflict, they must withdraw, Hirano said.
Hirano also announced formally that Japan will pledge up to $70 million at an
international conference in Montreal to address not just immediate needs for
water, food and clothes in Haiti but longer-term anti-disaster and medical
needs in the country.
Amid chaotic conditions, law enforcement authorities in Haiti have been
struggling to stop the looting of food, clothing and other supplies and to
secure transportation routes for relief materials.
Japan has already sent SDF emergency medical teams and support staff consisting
of about 180 members to Haiti and Miami. Dozens of civilian aid workers and
doctors have also been dispatched from Japan.
The Defense Ministry official said that of the 300 personnel about 200 members
will be engineers, mainly from the Ground Self-Defense Force's Central
Readiness Force. Others will be in charge of logistical support for the
engineering unit.
In addition to Japan, South Korea, Brazil and the Dominican Republic have
offered to send troops based on the UNSC resolution. The United Nations is
expected to decide which countries will take up the task possibly later this
week and coordinate forces, the ministry official said.
The official expected the SDF officers will engage in peacekeeping operations
for at least six months.
Meanwhile, Japanese emergency aid organizations that have dispatched staff to
Haiti called for continued support for the impoverished quake-hit nation,
saying it will be particularly important to provide relief in suburban areas
which have suffered as much damage as in the capital.
Keiko Kiyama, secretary general of aid group JEN, which has sent three members
to Grand-Goave, some 50 kilometers west of the capital Port-au-Prince, said
distribution of rations by the World Food Program has yet to begin in the area,
where more than 70 percent of buildings have collapsed.
She said quake survivors living in makeshift camps are increasingly frustrated
with the lack of food, water and electricity.
Kiyama and Yukie Osa, chairperson of the Japan Platform, an umbrella
organization of 32 Japanese aid groups, expressed regret that Japanese relief
activities have lagged behind those of other countries due mainly to the
physical and psychological distance between Japan and Haiti and language
barriers.
The JEN official expected Japanese groups to offer support to Haiti victims
drawing on the country's own experience of many earthquakes.
''I hope Haitian people will feel relieved and have a sense of affinity with
Japanese aid workers,'' Kiyama said.
==Kyodo