MSDF restarts anti-terror refueling mission

BY KEIICHI KANEKO AND AKIHIRO YAMADA

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

NORTHERN ARABIAN SEA--After a four-month hiatus, the Maritime Self-Defense Force resumed its anti-terrorism refueling mission in the Indian Ocean just as its crisis management ability was being questioned back home.

The Maritime Self-Defense Force's replenishment ship Oumi, foreground, refuels a Pakistani navy frigate on Thursday in the Indian Ocean.(KEIICHI KANEKO/ THE ASAHI SHIMBUN)

The MSDF supply ship Oumi on Thursday refueled a Pakistani navy frigate, the first such action under a new special measures law on anti-terrorism measures in Afghanistan. The destroyer Murasame was on guard.

The frigate used an international flag to send a welcome signal. The supply of 160 kiloliters of fuel took about 90 minutes in the calm seas whose horizon was blurred by a sandstorm.

In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura stressed the importance of ensuring safety of sea lanes for Japan's oil imports.

"It is significant indeed to keep peace in the Indian Ocean," he told a news conference Thursday. "A mission that meets the nation's interests has finally been resumed."

But the mission is fraught with many problems--a Diet divided over the issue, the new law's life-span of only a year and lingering suspicions that MSDF fuel had been diverted for use in the Iraq war, among others.

The ruling coalition pushed the law through the Diet on Jan. 11 after resubmitting the bill to the Lower House and gaining approval from a two-thirds majority. The measure was taken after the opposition-controlled Upper House rejected the bill.

The old law had expired Nov. 1, suspending the MSDF operations.

With no end in sight for the U.S.-led fight against terrorism in Afghanistan, the focus of debate in Japan now shifts to a possible enactment of a permanent law on athe SDF's overseas missions.

But the resumption of the refueling mission came amid distrust and criticism of the Defense Ministry and the SDF, following the Aegis destroyer Atago's collision with a fishing boat.

The destroyer's surveillance was deemed lax, its report to the defense minister too late and explanations on circumstances shaky.

"Doubts have arisen over whether (the MSDF ships) can really cope properly in the event of a terrorist attack," said Taku Yamasaki, a former Liberal Democratic Party secretary-general, on Wednesday.(IHT/Asahi: February 23,2008)