By NNN-Kyodo,
Tokyo : About 160 members of the Self-Defense Forces left for Haiti on Saturday night to engage in U.N. peacekeeping operations and help with reconstruction activities in the impoverished Caribbean nation devastated by the Jan. 12 quake.
The members form the first batch of a 350-member SDF unit, consisting mainly of engineers and those providing logistical support for the group. The troops are expected to remove rubble, repair roads and build shelters for quake victims.
Before their departure, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama instructed about 200 members of the unit at a ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo to ”fully apply (what the SDF has learned from) past experiences” of relief activities following the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake and the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake in carrying out the mission in Haiti.
”The quake victims are waiting for your arrival. It is only natural for human beings to extend a helping hand to those in need,” Hatoyama said. ”I want you to demonstrate that Japan is a country committed to saving lives.”
The Japanese leader also said rebuilding the destroyed lives of people would lead to the reconstruction of the nation and help stabilize the region. ”Your mission has great significance from the security viewpoint,” he said.
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa also told the SDF personnel to ”closely cooperate” with the United States and other countries participating in the U.N. mission.
”I hope you will maintain high discipline and unite under unit chief Col.
Masaharu Yamamoto and safely return to Japan after completing this honorable duty,” Kitazawa said.
Yamamoto later told reporters at Haneda airport in Tokyo, ”I instructed unit members to be prepared for possible looting. We want to ensure safety and make utmost efforts to aid the reconstruction work in Haiti.”
The dispatch of the SDF unit is in response to a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted unanimously on Jan. 19, which calls for an increase of 1,500 police and 2,000 troops for the peacekeeping operation, known as MINUSTAH, following the quake. MINUSTAH is the French acronym for the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti.
Around 30 of the approximately 160 SDF members are expected to arrive in the Haitian capital via Miami on Sunday local time. The unit will be based about 5 kilometers southeast of the airport in the capital Port-au-Prince.
The SDF troops will engage in the U.N. mission through Nov. 30 and the last batch of the unit is scheduled to leave Japan in early March.
The Haitian mission marks the SDF’s seventh participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations since the law enabling troop dispatch for such overseas missions was enacted in 1992.
Past SDF dispatches for U.N. operations include those to Cambodia, Mozambique, East Timor and Sudan.