Gov`t to tell defense force on Wed. to prepare for antipiracy mission

TOKYO, Jan. 27 Kyodo - Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada will instruct the Self-Defense Forces
on Wednesday morning to prepare for a deployment to waters off Somalia to
protect tankers and other commercial ships from pirates, government sources
said Tuesday.
The dispatch of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, which would come in early
March at the earliest due to training and other preparatory work, would be the
first SDF deployment overseas under the maritime police action provision of the
SDF law.
The instruction is expected after Hamada talks with Prime Minister Taro Aso on
Wednesday morning. ''I will tell the defense minister to quicken the
preparations after the national security council meeting tomorrow,'' Aso told
reporters on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Kosuke Hori, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic
Party's Policy Research Council, and Natsuo Yamaguchi, Hori's counterpart in
the New Komeito party, the LDP's junior coalition partner, urged Aso to prepare
for the MSDF dispatch.
''Not only are shipments coming to Japan being targeted by pirates but people's
lives are also at risk. We would like the government to make thorough
preparations as soon as possible,'' Hori told Aso at the outset of their
meeting at the prime minister's office.
Yamaguchi asked Aso to consider requiring the MSDF to train with the Japan
Coast Guard on antipiracy measures and making such training open to the media,
he said afterward. ''The prime minister nodded in agreement.''
The two parties had agreed earlier to enact a law to specifically authorize the
SDF to be deployed overseas on antipiracy operations. But to enable a swift
dispatch, they also agreed to recommend invoking a provision in the existing
law as a stopgap measure.
During the preparations, which will take at least a month, the Defense Ministry
will devise rules of engagement, carry out training of crew members and ready
communications equipment that would link MSDF vessels and command posts during
the mission, ministry officials said.
Once that is complete, Defense Minister Hamada will order the dispatch with
Aso's approval, with the actual operation in the far-off waters likely to begin
in late March or later.
But wary of a deployment under the maritime policing provision, which has never
been invoked to deal with pirates, the minister has called for a new law to
provide firm legal grounds for such a mission.
Aso told reporters Tuesday evening he will submit a bill to parliament as early
as March to enable the MSDF to carry out its mission under new terms.
While the planned bill could impose less stringent rules on the use of weapons,
according to coalition sources, it remains unclear whether the bill would sail
smoothly through the Diet given possible opposition to relaxing the rules on
the use of weapons from the opposition parties and even some members of the New
Komeito party.
A maritime police action is undertaken in a situation in which the coast guard
lacks the capacity to protect Japanese lives and property at sea.
As such, the MSDF would be able to protect only Japan-related ships --
Japanese-registered ships and foreign vessels with Japanese nationals or
shipments aboard.
The maritime force would only be able to use weapons in limited circumstances,
such as for self-defense, because it must operate in accordance with the
execution of the police duties law when acting under the provision.
More than a dozen countries, including the United States, European Union
nations and China have sent naval ships to waters off Somalia, including the
Gulf of Aden, where piracy incidents have surged in the past year.
Prime Minister Aso has been a strong advocate of an SDF dispatch under the
maritime police action provision, albeit as a temporary measure, saying many
Japan-related ships navigate the waters and the MSDF should therefore be
deployed swiftly.
==Kyodo