Tokyo: Japanese government will prepare
Self-Defense Forces to join the United Nations peacekeeping
mission in Haiti in view of the tremendous damage inflicted on
the Caribbean nation by the Jan 12 earthquake, Japanese
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said on Monday.
"We would like to start preparations for a dispatch,"
Kitazawa said at a meeting of senior ministry officials,
referring to the UN Security Council resolution adopted
unanimously last Tuesday to boost the number of personnel for
the mission, known as MINUSTAH, by 3,500 -1,500 police and
2,000 troops.
"I want the SDF to be made ready to offer swift and
proper action as soon as a formal UN request is made to
support Haiti`s reconstruction and UN activities," Kitazawa
told the officials.
The move came after Kitazawa, Chief Cabinet Secretary
Hirofumi Hirano and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada informally
reached an accord on Sunday to consider dispatching an SDF
unit to take part in MINUSTAH.
The government will inform the United Nations that it is
ready to send the Ground Self-Defense Force engineering unit
comprising about 300 personnel, Hirano said.
Amid chaotic conditions, law enforcement authorities have
been struggling to stop the looting of food, clothing and
other supplies and to secure transportation routes for relief
materials.
Japan has already sent SDF and semiofficial emergency
medical teams consisting of about 150 members to Haiti.
PTI
