- 15 Mar 2003
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Three Japanese nationals are being held hostage in Iraq by a group called the "Mujahedeen Brigades." The group is demanding the Japanese SDF forces leave Iraq within three days or they will kill the hostages.
From Mainichi Daily News:
This is a huge story in Japan (and rightly so). It has even made the morning tabloid news, usual reserved for gossip and love stories. I have seen the TV footage and I assure you the hostages are very real and not some stunt.
The political and social fallout is nothing short of astounding. If Koizumi sticks to his guns and the hostages are killed, the SDF will not touch foreign soil again for another 20 years IMHO. If they pull the SDF out, any terrorist group with half a brain will know they can get the Japanese government to cave in by attacking the weakest and most helpless of its citizens (in this case humanitarian workers).
If the three die, I expect we could see only the second handover in political power in Japan since the end of WWII. If they pull out, Japan will continue to be on the outskirts of world power politics and a soft target for terrorists. I don't see how this could do anything but make Japan even more xenophobic and warry of any foreign person not blonde and blue-eyed.
And the deadline of three days? It took the SDF weeks to get set up even after getting to Iraq. How are they going to get out in three days? The demands are so strict it will me near impossible to meet them if that is what the government decides to do.
I don't know about you all, but the only solution I see is to try and bust them out. But then the group expects that (unreasonable time limit) and will be ready - if they can find them.
This is going to be a very nasty lesson for Japan about the current way IR is played.
From Mainichi Daily News:
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20040408p2a00m0fp012009c.html
Qatar-based satellite broadcaster Aljazeera said Thursday that three Japanese nationals have been taken hostage by a group in Iraq.
The group, which calls itself "Mujahedeen Brigades" in English, threatens to kill the three Japanese unless Japan's Self Defense Forces (SDF) leave the country within three days, Aljazeera said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said, "We are sending the SDF for (non-military) humanitarian reconstruction efforts, and therefore there is no reason to call them back."
Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said that Japan would do its utmost to ensure the release of the three.
"You have two choices. To withdraw the troops, or we will burn them alive," the group, Saraya al-Mujahedeen, said in a letter sent to Aljazeera.
In Tokyo, shocked government and police officials are investigating details through the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad.
"The information we have is awfully vague. We assumed that if any Japanese was to be attacked, it would be SDF troops," a Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity. "But we face a worst scenario with civilians being taken hostage. At this stage, we don't understand what kind of group detained them."
This is a huge story in Japan (and rightly so). It has even made the morning tabloid news, usual reserved for gossip and love stories. I have seen the TV footage and I assure you the hostages are very real and not some stunt.
The political and social fallout is nothing short of astounding. If Koizumi sticks to his guns and the hostages are killed, the SDF will not touch foreign soil again for another 20 years IMHO. If they pull the SDF out, any terrorist group with half a brain will know they can get the Japanese government to cave in by attacking the weakest and most helpless of its citizens (in this case humanitarian workers).
If the three die, I expect we could see only the second handover in political power in Japan since the end of WWII. If they pull out, Japan will continue to be on the outskirts of world power politics and a soft target for terrorists. I don't see how this could do anything but make Japan even more xenophobic and warry of any foreign person not blonde and blue-eyed.
And the deadline of three days? It took the SDF weeks to get set up even after getting to Iraq. How are they going to get out in three days? The demands are so strict it will me near impossible to meet them if that is what the government decides to do.
I don't know about you all, but the only solution I see is to try and bust them out. But then the group expects that (unreasonable time limit) and will be ready - if they can find them.
This is going to be a very nasty lesson for Japan about the current way IR is played.