Japan to Delay Troop Dispatch to Iraq Until Feb 2004

Using the incident in which two diplomats in Iraq were killed as momentum, the Japanese government affirmed that they would revise the previous plan of sending the air self-defense force to Iraq by the end of this year and has postponed the entire plan of troop dispatch, including ground and maritime self-defense forces, to next year.

Tokyo Shimbun, quoting the remarks of defense ministry, passed on that coating all fighting vehicles with bulletproof protection would begin in a month, moving the actual date of dispatch to early February 2004.

It is known that Japanese government has cancelled the reservations on the airplanes which were originally intended to transport the troops to Iraq by the end of this year.

In order to support the reconstruction program in Iraq, the Japanese government had originally decided to send civilian experts including ones on electricity, education, medical care and water works field to Iraq, but it has changed the plan and will not send these experts until the situation improves, reported the Japanese dailies.

parkwj@donga.com