Newsletter No. 374
News-Analysis
September 6, 2006

 

The following newsletter has been contributed by Keely Fahoum (Shingetsu Member No. 112). Fahoum is a captain in the US military and is currently based at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA.

ASDF AIRLIFTS IN SUPPORT OF THE UN IN IRAQ TO BEGIN SOON

On Wednesday, August 30th, Japan and the United Nations established a protocol for the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force’s (ASDF) duties in support of UN assistance missions in Iraq. According to procedures and conditions for the ASDF support exchanged between Japan’s Ambassador to the UN, Kenzo Oshima, and other UN representatives, ASDF C-130 transport planes will fly from their bases in Kuwait carrying UN supplies and personnel bound for Baghdad and Irbil. The agreement was established after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan requested assistance from Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for airlift supporting UN missions into Iraq during his visit to Japan earlier this year. Prime Minister Koizumi had promised to favorably consider the request and subsequently decided to support UN missions, although he redeployed the Ground Self-Defense Forces (GSDF) from Samawa, Iraq, in June. The ASDF has provided airlift support to the GSDF during the early months of 2004, recording the first time that Japanese airmen had been deployed to a combat zone since World War II. There has been no timetable established for the commencement of the airlifts, but officials said they would begin soon.

Koizumi’s decision to leave Japanese forces in West Asia in support of UN missions has highlighted recent concerns about command and control between the Japanese Defense Agency and its deployed forces. Reports of accidental shots fired from GSDF light armored vehicles during their 2004 deployment to Samawa were filed from outside the Defense Agency’s chain of command well after the incident, and prompted criticism of ineffective communication channels between military forces and government agency oversight. The decision to keep ASDF support for UN missions allows Japan to contribute support to the reconstruction of Iraq without being involved in day-to-day ground operations requiring the use of heavy or light artillery. As Japan takes a more active role in deploying its ground forces in the future, operating procedures and communications protocols are likely to evolve so that mishaps such as the one which occurred in Samawa in 2004 can be handled within the Defense Agency, and not become fodder for political battles within the Diet.