Panel proposes SDF help rescue Japanese during overseas crisis

Jumat, 01 Maret 2013 01:07

(TOKYO-Kyodo) A government panel proposed Thursday to allow the Self-Defense Forces to help rescue Japanese nationals during possible overseas incidents such as January's hostage crisis in Algeria that resulted in the deaths of 10 Japanese among other expatriate victims.

As the SDF can only transport Japanese nationals by sea or air when safety on the ground is assured, the panel proposed that the SDF also transport Japanese by vehicles on land by revising the law, according to its report finalized Thursday.

Based on the report, a group comprising members including from a university, major firms and a U.N. mission will start working in another panel Friday on compiling proposals by the end of April on how to secure the safety of Japanese nationals overseas, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

The government convened the first panel to review its response to the hostage crisis, a controversial issue in light of the war-renouncing Constitution which largely limits SDF activities outside Japan including the use of weapons.

Suga headed the government panel of officials of entities such as the Foreign and Defense ministries as well as the National Police Agency.

Given Tokyo had trouble confirming the status of the Japanese hostages in the Algerian crisis, the report urges the government to dispatch diplomats fluent in local languages and more defense attaches to the southern Sahara, where Islamist militants are active.

It also proposes increasing exchanges with military and intelligence organizations in North Africa.

"There was a mixture of information, including some of uncertain credibility," the report says.

The panel of experts will be headed by Kunihiko Miyake, a former senior diplomat now a professor at Ritsumeikan University, and include five other members from such bodies as electronics giant Hitachi Ltd. and the Japanese office of the U.N. Development Program, Suga said.

In mid-January, Islamist militants took over the In Amenas gas complex in eastern Algeria, resulting in the deaths of 37 foreigners from eight countries including 10 Japanese employees of engineering firm JGC Corp.