TOKYO – Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi vowed yesterday that Japanese troops would continue their domestically unpopular mission in Iraq after Islamic militants demanding a pullout killed a 24-year-old Japanese tourist.
A head and a decapitated body with bound hands and feet were found wrapped in a US flag on Saturday behind a hospital on Baghdad’s Haifa Street, a stronghold of Iraq’s most wanted man Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi. Fingerprint samples were sent to Tokyo and matched those of Shosei Koda, a naive traveller who took a public bus to Baghdad and was an easy target for kidnappers.”It is our utmost regret that Mr Shosei Koda fell victim to terrorism although the Japanese government made every possible effort to rescue the hostage,” Koizumi said.”I offer my sincere condolences to his family.”Koda is the fifth Japanese to die in Iraq since the US-led war in the country, of which Koizumi was a vocal supporter.Two diplomats and two journalists were killed in gun attacks.”Our country in cooperation with the international community will carry out humanitarian and rehabilitation assistance by the Self-Defence Forces for the sake of the people of Iraq and continue resolutely to fight against terrorism,” Koizumi said.The military, known as the Self-Defence Forces as Japan’s constitution rejects the use of force, is on its first deployment since World War II to an area of active fighting, although it is on a non-combat reconstruction mission.An Asahi Shimbun poll, published a day before Koda’s kidnapping was announced by an Islamist website, found that 63 per cent of Japanese oppose keeping troops in Iraq after their mission expires on December 14.The opposition pledged after Koda’s killing to fight against any extension of the mission.- Nampa-AFPFingerprint samples were sent to Tokyo and matched those of Shosei Koda, a naive traveller who took a public bus to Baghdad and was an easy target for kidnappers.”It is our utmost regret that Mr Shosei Koda fell victim to terrorism although the Japanese government made every possible effort to rescue the hostage,” Koizumi said.”I offer my sincere condolences to his family.”Koda is the fifth Japanese to die in Iraq since the US-led war in the country, of which Koizumi was a vocal supporter.Two diplomats and two journalists were killed in gun attacks.”Our country in cooperation with the international community will carry out humanitarian and rehabilitation assistance by the Self-Defence Forces for the sake of the people of Iraq and continue resolutely to fight against terrorism,” Koizumi said.The military, known as the Self-Defence Forces as Japan’s constitution rejects the use of force, is on its first deployment since World War II to an area of active fighting, although it is on a non-combat reconstruction mission.An Asahi Shimbun poll, published a day before Koda’s kidnapping was announced by an Islamist website, found that 63 per cent of Japanese oppose keeping troops in Iraq after their mission expires on December 14.The opposition pledged after Koda’s killing to fight against any extension of the mission.- Nampa-AFP
