Cabinet OKs plan to dispatch SDF to quake-hit Haiti+

TOKYO, Feb. 5 Kyodo -
The Cabinet endorsed on Friday a specific plan for Japan's dispatch of
Self-Defense Forces personnel to quake-hit Haiti to engage in U.N. peacekeeping
operations, preparing the way for some 160 SDF members to depart for the
Caribbean nation on Saturday.

Under the plan, a 350-member unit will engage in the U.N. mission on a steady
basis until Nov. 30. The unit consists mainly of SDF engineers who will help in
reconstruction work in the quake-devastated country, and includes three
civilians who will examine the quake resistance of buildings.
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa ordered the dispatch of the SDF unit after
the Cabinet meeting. Kitazawa told a meeting of senior Defense Ministry
officials that he expects the SDF members to ''make the most of their technical
strength and abundant experience to contribute to the Haitian people.''
For the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, which was launched last
September, it will be the first SDF dispatch for a U.N. peacekeeping mission.
The SDF unit will be based some 5 kilometers southeast of the airport of the
capital Port-au-Prince and the Japanese camp will be adjacent to where troops
from Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Nepal participating in the U.N. mission are
deployed, a Defense Ministry official said.
The SDF unit, the last batch of whose members will leave Japan in early March,
is expected to swiftly begin removing rubble, repairing roads and building
shelters for quake victims, he said.
Information provided by Japan's fact-finding team dispatched earlier suggests
that the security conditions in the Caribbean nation are now basically stable,
Kitazawa said.
Those engaged in the peacekeeping operations will carry rifles, handguns and
machine guns to defend themselves. About 30 personnel will guard the unit's
camp, according to Senior Vice Defense Minister Kazuya Shimba.
The dispatch of the SDF unit is in response to a U.N. Security Council
resolution adopted unanimously on Jan. 19, which calls for an increase of 1,500
police and 2,000 troops for the peacekeeping operation, known as MINUSTAH,
following the Jan. 12 quake.
MINUSTAH is the French acronym for the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti.
For the reconstruction work, Japan plans to transport about 150 vehicles
including bulldozers, hydraulic shovels, trucks and trailers aboard a chartered
plane, the first batch of which will arrive in Haiti via the neighboring
Dominican Republic around Feb. 12, the official said.
Separately, an SDF medical team consisting of about 100 members has been
extending support to quake victims in Leogane, some 40 km west of the capital,
since Jan. 23.
Japan has sent SDF personnel to six U.N. peacekeeping operations in Cambodia,
the Golan Heights, Mozambique, East Timor, Nepal and Sudan since the enactment
in 1992 of a law providing a legal basis for the overseas dispatch of SDF
troops.
Tokyo last sent a large-scale SDF unit to a U.N. peacekeeping mission in East
Timor, where it engaged in reconstruction work in the conflict-ravaged country
between 2002 and 2004.
==Kyodo
2010-02-05 23:18:28