Japan's Defense Ministry reluctant to send choppers to Sudan+

TOKYO, June 18 Kyodo -
Japan's Defense Ministry has found it difficult to send Self-Defense Forces
helicopters to Sudan for a U.N. peacekeeping mission, a senior ministry
official said Friday, while the government is slated to decide soon whether to
play a role with the dispatch.
The ministry has already notified the Foreign Ministry and the Cabinet Office's
Secretariat for the International Peace Cooperation Headquarters about its view
as a basis for the government to make a final decision on the matter, according
to the official.
A referendum on the right to self-determination for the people of Southern
Sudan is to be held in the country next January, and it has been hoped that
Japanese copters would be used to help transport ballot boxes under the
auspices of the United Nations.
The Defense Ministry has found it unclear whether the country will be stable at
the time of the dispatch and found that the helicopter operation would be
costly, the official said.
But the Foreign Ministry remains willing to dispatch the aircraft to the
African country as part of Japan's international contribution, its officials
said.
When asked about the possible dispatch, however, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada
only said a final conclusion has not yet been made while adding that the
referendum to decide whether Southern Sudan will secede ''will be a very
important poll for Sudan and Africa.''
The government sent a fact-finding mission to Sudan in May to study the
feasibility of sending a Ground Self-Defense Force helicopter unit. Upon the
mission's return, the Defense Ministry came to the conclusion that while it
would cost more than 10 billion yen to send large transport copters and troops
to Sudan, the benefits would be limited, according to the official.
A civil conflict in Sudan that lasted more than two decades ended in 2005, and
Japan has dispatched several GSDF members to the U.N. mission in Sudan, which
is monitoring a cease-fire and assisting in peace-building in the country.
While calls for the right to self-determination are growing in Southern Sudan,
tension is rising between the north and south, partly because some in the
central government in the north want the south, which has rights to oil
resources, to remain part of the country.
Japanese troops have participated in several U.N. peacekeeping operations,
including in Cambodia, Mozambique, East Timor and Sudan, since a law was
enacted in 1992 enabling them to be dispatched to such overseas missions.
==Kyodo
2010-06-18 23:52:53


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