TOKYO: Despite growing public concerns about the security situation in Iraq, where two Japanese diplomats were killed in an ambush attack late last month, the government is expected to endorse a plan for sending Self-Defence Forces (SDF) to Iraq on Tuesday.

There is currently a conflict between the government and the general public over whether to send troops to the war-torn country, where the security situation remains fragile.

Public opposition in Japan to sending troops has increased since the killing of diplomats Katsuhiko Oku, 45, and Masamori Inoue, 30, on Nov 29. The two were killed after being ambushed and became the first Japanese to die in Iraq since the US-led war began last March.

They had been travelling with nine other Japanese diplomats to the northern Iraqi city Tikrit for a conference on reconstruction work in the region.

Despite security concerns among the general public concerning the troops, Japan has obligations to the United States, Japan’s main ally, to support the war in Iraq under a US-Japan security treaty. In addition, Tokyo has to take into account prevailing security threats, particularly those from North Korea.

Former prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa said in a recent interview with Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper he thinks Japan should not cancel plans to dispatch the troops because of the deaths of the two Japanese diplomats.

“Japan-US relations have never been better. It is a good thing that the US President and the Japanese Prime Minister are close,” Miyazawa said.

Japan was criticized heavily by the United States and

other countries when the government did not send troops during the Gulf War in 1991. Instead, Japan contributed 13 billion dollars to cover expenses in the multinational effort - equal to 20 per cent of the war’s cost.

While the Japanese government remains eager to assist the Iraqi people in rebuilding their country, the question remains whether this can be satisfactorily accomplished by sending troops under present conditions.

When the Diet passed a measure allowing troops to be sent earlier this year, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi assumed the situation in Iraq would eventually stabilize and Japanese assistance would be put on track, experts say.

The law passed last June permits troops to be sent, but only outside combat zones.

Kazuo Takahashi, an assistant professor of Middle East studies at the University of the Air in Tokyo, said no matter how much the government stresses the importance of its troops helping Iraqi reconstruction, it is clear such as explanation will not be accepted by the majority of Iraqis.

The SDF troops will be deployed to help build roads and bridges and participate in other reconstruction activities.

“An overwhelming majority of the Iraqi people are more likely to think that “the Japanese army is here to help US forces”, Takahashi said.

In addition to the killing of the two Japanese diplomats, agents with the Spanish intelligence service were also attacked late last month, while several South Koreans were killed or wounded on Nov 30. Assaults on US troops have steadily continued as well.

Meanwhile, Teikyo University Professor Toshiyuki Shikata supports the government plans on sending troops.

He said all nations consider it inevitable that some people will be hurt or killed during international peacekeeping activities, let alone during wars.—dpa