Koizumi cannot say who decided Iraq is unwilling to disarm

Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro said that Japan's decision to support the U.S. use of force against Iraq is based on the conclusion that the Hussein regime has no intention to disarm itself.

Koizumi said this in a televised one-on-one debate in parliament with Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on March 19.

Reminding the prime minister that neither the UNSC nor the U.N. weapons inspectors have arrived at that conclusion, Shii asked Koizumi, "Who decided that the Hussein regime is not willing to disarm itself?"

Koizumi answered, "The international community is united on this point and concludes that Iraq is not cooperating in abandoning weapons of mass destruction and that that's what the international community expressed in Resolution 1441." This invited derisive laughter from those who were present at the debate.

Shii said, "The international community hasn't reached that conclusion," adding that the United States alone decided that Iraq is not willing to disarm itself. He criticized the prime minister for just repeating what the United States says and demanded that the Japanese government immediately retract its support for the arbitrary U.S. conclusion.

"The United States has forcibly cut short the international community's efforts to achieve a peaceful solution to the Iraq issue through U.N. weapons inspections, and the U.S. war on Iraq lacks endorsement from the UNSC and international laws as well as the U.N. Charter," Shii said.

Shii told Koizumi that the war will take the lives of an enormous number of innocent people in flagrant violation of international law and norms of justice.

As soon as the one-on-one debate ended, the JCP head office received a large number of faxes, telephone calls, and e-mails from TV viewers, many commenting, "I want to do something to stop the war." A man in an e-mail said, "No matter whether I like the JCP or not, I just think what Shii argued is right." (end)