Newsletter No. 347
News-Analysis
August 1, 2006

 

The following article appeared today in the Daily Yomiuri:

TENSIONS RISE FOR JAPAN'S MISSION ON THE GOLAN HEIGHTS
By Hidemichi Katsumata
Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

The increasing tensions in the Middle East have started to affect U.N. peacekeeping operations in the Golan Heights in which members of the Ground Self-Defense Force are participating.

The GSDF began contributing forces to the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in February 1996, under the U.N. Peacekeeping Activities Cooperation Law. Forty-three GSDF members are engaged in transport operations as part of the 21st contingent. The UNDOF began operations in the Golan Heights -- an area of land between Israel and Syria -- in 1974, following the end of the Yom Kippur War, which broke out between them a year earlier. Since then, UNDOF units have been monitoring the ceasefire between the two countries.

In addition to GSDF personnel, about 1,000 troops from seven countries, including Australia, India and Poland, are stationed at UNDOF camps set up on each side of the Syria-Israel border.

Thirty-one GSDF members are stationed at Camp Ziouani, which is located on the Israeli side. The GSDF team has been transporting construction materials and daily supplies between the camp and Haifa, an Israeli port city on the Mediterranean Sea, and Ben-Gurion Airport, about 15 kilometers southeast of Tel Aviv. However, in mid-July, when the fighting between Israeli forces and Hizbollah intensified, Tokyo's Joint Staff Office in charge of Self-Defense Force operations began receiving daily updates from the unit stationed in the area.

A senior GSDF officer said: "Right now, missiles and rockets land only a stone's throw from here. Although they're about 10 kilometers away from the camp, they [GSDF personnel stationed in the camp] can hear missiles and rockets hitting the ground every day."

UNDOF has completely halted transport operations by its units within Israel and requires its personnel to wear bulletproof vests and helmets even when working outside the country. In addition, the GSDF unit currently does not allow its members to leave the camp for anything other than official duties--not even holidays. In late July, an Israeli air strike killed four U.N. truce observers stationed at a facility of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.

A senior official of the Defense Agency said: "Under the order of the UNDOF, the no-go area has been expanding, but an emergency evacuation route between the camp and Damascus has been secured. UNDOF has been extremely cautious [about the current situation], and so far we're not worried about the safety of the GSDF personnel."

The GSDF unit on the Golan Heights rotates every six months, and the 22nd contingent is scheduled to take over the peacekeeping mission in late August. In Iraq, an Air Self-Defense Force transport aircraft unit is still operating. To support the ASDF's operations, five SDF officers are stationed at the headquarters of the multinational force in Baghdad. Although the last GSDF troops have now returned to Japan from Samawah in southern Iraq, the agency will have to keep a close eye on the situation in the Middle East for some time to come.