|
Japanese: Bring troops home from Iraq
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-03-19 15:54
TOKYO - Hundreds of demonstrators marched through central Tokyo on Sunday,
calling for the withdrawal of Japanese troops from Iraq three years after the
start of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
The demonstration, the second in two
days, came as the Japanese government puzzles over when to bring home its 600 or
so noncombat troops, who have been engaged in reconstruction activities in the
southern town of Samawa since January 2004.
"Bring the troops back from
Iraq," read banners carried by some of the Tokyo demonstrators, who chanted and
played drums as they marched.
"It has been three years since the war
started and the American troops are still there, as well as the Japanese," said
43-year-old office worker Kumiko Shimizu. "I just want to put a stop to it as
soon as possible."
Foreign Minister Taro Aso said on Saturday the
government was putting off the decision, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported.
"The Iraqis have not formed a new administration, so there is no logic
to withdrawing the troops now," Aso told reporters in Sydney, the paper said.
Aso was in Australia for meetings with U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
"The
situation does not permit a decision on when to end our mission," the Nikkei
quoted Aso as telling Downer.
Earlier media reports had said the
government wanted to withdraw the troops, whose activities are strictly limited
by the country's pacifist constitution, by the end of May, but could come under
pressure from the United States to stay longer.
Opinion polls have shown
that the majority of the Japanese electorate wants the troops brought home from
their most dangerous overseas mission since World War Two in the first half of
this year.
|
| |
|
| |