Hostage ordeal prompts soul searching on
Iraq By Richard Hanson
TOKYO -
Japan's hostage ordeal begins, and with it the soul
searching over the wisdom of Japanese troop deployment
in the ferocious Iraq war zone. In view of the
government's zero-tolerance for casualties, the crisis
presents Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi with his
biggest political crisis since taking office in 2001.
At stake are three lives, the controversial
presence of Japanese troops in Iraq, Koizumi's political
future - and ties with the United States. The public has
been deeply divided over troop deployment, and the death
of hostages could dramatically tip the balance against
the Japanese mission in the Middle East desert. Already
troops are confined to their fortified camp because of
the violence engulfing key regions. Continuing troop
deployment is up for reauthorization by the Diet on May
1.
In a new strategy to scare foreigners away
from Iraq, eight South Koreans also were taken hostage,
but released by another group. Seoul has promised to
send troops to Iraq, and that deployment might be in
jeopardy.
But the big story is the Japanese
hostages.
On Thursday, a group of unknown
identity (stage name: Saraya al-Mujahideen, or the
Mujahideen Brigade) wearing black masks and decked out
in weapons announced it was holding three Japanese
nationals (two men, one woman) captive in Iraq and
demanded the withdrawal of Japanese Self-Defense Forces
(SDF) troops from Iraq.
The deadline for a reply
before the hostages are shot dead: Three days from the
airing of a computer-generated film shown on the
Qatar-based Arab satellite television news channel,
alJazeera. Japanese technicians figured out it was
delivered on a CD-ROM disk. By Friday afternoon Tokyo
time, Japan's Foreign Ministry reckoned that meant 6 pm
on Sunday, Japan Standard Time.
Meanwhile,
Japan's chief cabinet secretary Yasuo Fukuda made clear
that no way is the government going to withdraw its
Self-Defense Forces from Iraq. They just got there with
550 ground troops on a humanitarian mission, and have
set up a well fortified camp, located in the "relatively
safe" southern Iraq region of Samawah. With air and
maritime support forces based in Kuwait and elsewhere,
the military commitment is over 1,000 men and women.
Strictly humanitarian, non-combat
mission Under the strict law governing the
deployment, their missions are strictly humanitarian -
rebuilding hospitals, water purification plants and
such. The non-combat restrictions are put in place for
two reasons. One is that Japan's defense forces are
restricted from outright military aggression outside of
Japan by the country's war-renouncing constitution. The
other is that opinion polls indicate that at least half
the voters in Japan opposed sending troops to Iraq.
Any serious loss of life in Iraq could mean
trouble for Koizumi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party in
a crucial parliamentary election in July. That would
weaken Koizumi's grip on the premiership, a post he has
held - against the odds at times - for three years
exactly.
Back to the hostages, who plainly were
in the wrong place at the wrong time. Of the three, Ms
Nahoko Takato, 34, is a described as a volunteer aid
worker. Soichiro Koriyama, 32, is a freelance photo
journalist with a contract with the Weekly Asahi
magazine, with experience in Afghanistan. The third is
18-year-old Noriaki Imai, a freelance writer who
recently graduated from high school in the northern
island of Hokkaido. Imai was contributing to a magazine
named, in translation, "Nature and Humans".
All
three were shown with blindfolds on in the short film
segment. Their captors showed their bloodthirsty side by
threatening to "burn them alive" if the Japanese
government refuses to pull its troops out of Iraq. The
reference to "burning them alive" raised questions about
whether kidnappers were non-Iraqi (or not Islamic)
because Islam frowns on burning people alive.
In
Japan, there was quite naturally a strong interest in
the fate of the hostages. Their families met with the
foreign minister in Tokyo to hear that the government
will do all it can do - which is very little.
South Koreans also taken hostage The
unfortunate Japanese hostages appear to be just part of
a sweep of hostage takings, possibly done by the same or
related groups. There were seven South Koreans,
described as Christian evangelical church pastors, and
one other South Korean. They were all released; the
terms were vague but might have involved money.
The motivation for including South Koreans would
seem to be clear. The South Korean government is under
fire at home for its plans to send a contingent of 3,000
troops to join US President George W Bush's "coalition
of the willing" to support America's occupation of Iraq.
On Friday, South Korea banned its citizens from
entering Iraq. Other reported hostages are a mixed lot:
Two Palestinians, with Israeli identification, and a
Syrian-born Canadian man were also grabbed and let go.
So far Japan has just warned its nationals from
traveling to Iraq unless they are part of some official
mission.
For its part, the Japanese government
has ruled out any withdrawal of troop from Iraq under
threat of the lives of the hostages. The government sent
senior vice foreign minister Ichiro Aisawa to Amman,
Jordan, Friday to handle the hostage crisis. An
emergency anti-terrorism team will accompany him from
the National Police Agency. Koizumi's cabinet is in the
odd position of having set its own trip-wires for
withdrawing it troops.
The legal mandate, which
sent the troops to Iraq, was approved in December, and
actually runs out on May 1, less than seven weeks away.
The government insists that the cabinet will vote to
renew the mandate to keep troops there. But a bloody
hostage situation will not go down well at home.
Iraq no longer "safe" for Japanese - or any -
troops The cruel battles that have broken out in
the past few weeks against the US-led occupation of
Iraq, coinciding with the "victory" over (the now
captured) Saddam Hussein one year ago, has been a
sobering reminder of how unstable Iraq is.
All
sense of "security" has vanished in the hot desert
climes of Samawah.
Two weeks ago, the government
ordered a stop to all "humanitarian" activities outside
the SDF fortress, though a government spokesman said
that water is still at still being purified inside the
camp. The substantial, and heretofore ubiquitous,
contingent of Japanese journalists also has retreated to
the camp. Koizumi's government has an unspoken "zero
tolerance" for combat-related deaths. That was clear in
the delicate political debate leading up to the sending
the troops. ''There is no reason [for the troops] to
withdraw," cabinet secretary Fukuda said.
What
the government doesn't say is that they have no way of
assuring the lives of the three hostages either. The
abduction of the Japanese civilians has presented
Koizumi with his biggest political crisis since taking
office in 2001. The Japanese government resumed work
Friday morning to deal with the capture of three
Japanese nationals by an armed group in Iraq, hoping to
secure contact with the hostage takers. A task force
headed by the chief cabinet secretary was established
and held its first meeting after Friday morning's
cabinet meeting.
Koizumi, Foreign Minister
Yoriko Kawaguchi and Fukuda gathered at the premier's
office in the morning to confirm the report and explore
measures to obtain the release of the three Japanese.
The Japanese government's experience with
hostage situations is not encouraging. They have mainly
involved airline hijacks. One experienced person in the
hostage business recalls that the Japanese government's
three-point policy since the 1970s in handling hostage
crises seems to have been: 1. Give in. 2. Pay up. And 3.
Fly the bad guys wherever they want to go.
Unfortunately for the hostages, their captors
might not understand that the government doesn't have
the time or the means to bring about a peaceful end to
the crisis. None of the above options seems likely to
work before the clock runs out Sunday night.
The
fate of the Japanese troops is also uncertain.
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