TOKYO, 22 March 2004 — Japan urged the international community yesterday to persevere in efforts to rebuild Iraq and backed up its message by saying that it intends to offer the war-torn nation some $20 million in fresh humanitarian aid.
The announcement came as Spain said the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq was all but inevitable and as another contingent of Japanese troops prepared to leave for the Middle East.
Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi reiterated the Japanese government’s view that it was essential for the international community to continue working to rebuild Iraq.
“If we let Iraq go now, it will become a failed nation,” Kawaguchi told an NHK national television talk show.
“This is an extremely important time for international society to work together in terms of both financial and human support.”
Kawaguchi said Japan intended to provide some 22 billion yen ($20.6 million) in equipment and supplies for projects such as restoring electricity supply, water purification, and providing medical equipment for hospitals.
The government was likely to decide on the additional aid formally by the end of March, she added.
Japan is a key US ally in Asia, and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been a staunch supporter of the US-led war in Iraq from the beginning, despite public opposition.
It has sent some 380 ground troops to southern Iraq for a humanitarian mission that could eventually involve up to 1,000 military personnel in Iraq and the surrounding region, along with pledging $5 billion in reconstruction aid.
Another 120 troops prepared to leave for the Gulf later yesterday to join in the Japanese military’s riskiest overseas mission since World War II.
Japanese public opinion has been divided over the deployment, which critics say violates the country’s pacifist constitution.
But a Jiji news agency poll published on Thursday showed that support for sending troops was on the rise despite deadly bombings in Madrid that stoked fears of similar attacks in Tokyo.
Just over 50 percent of respondents to the March 11-14 survey said they backed the troop deployment, up 3.8 percentage points from a month earlier, while 25.4 percent opposed it.
Japan has vowed to keep its troops in Iraq despite being named as a possible target in a recent purported letter from Al-Qaeda and despite the chance of a Spanish pullout.
However, many of the tens of thousands who took part in demonstrations around Japan on Saturday, the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, said they wanted Japan’s forces back now. “If the Self-Defense Forces stay in Iraq, something like 9/11 will happen in Japan,” said Yasuko Nagasawa. “The troops must come home.”
