Japan sends team to study UN peacekeeping role in Sudan

TOKYO, Mar 8, 2005 (Kyodo) — Japan will send a team of experts to Sudan to study the feasibility of taking part in a possible UN peacekeeping operation there, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Tuesday.

Hosoda made the comment after meeting with UN Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno, who expressed hope that Japan will send troops to the civil war-ravaged country or contribute in other ways.

“We will have to examine the circumstances as it is a country little known in Japan,” Hosoda, the top government spokesman, said at a press conference. “We will send several experts to listen to the situation.”

Hosoda suggested that the team will be sent after the UN Security Council adopts a resolution calling for a peacekeeping operation in the country following a recent agreement to end two decades of civil war.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said, “We will have to look closely into the situation and consider what Japan should do.”

But Tokyo has not decided whether to deploy the Self-Defence Forces, both Koizumi and Hosoda stressed.

Guehenno separately told reporters after meeting with Hosoda, “There are many ways in which Japan could contribute to the efforts of the international community in Sudan, including deployment of the Self-Defence Forces.”

“This is certainly effective contribution that is much appreciated … and I was pleased that this matter is at the moment under consideration in the government of Japan,” he said.