Japan to build base facilities in Djibouti for antipiracy mission+

TOKYO, July 30 Kyodo -
Japan will construct its own base facilities in Djibouti to accommodate
Self-Defense Forces personnel and patrol planes engaged in antipiracy
operations off Somalia, government sources said Thursday.

Tokyo plans to complete the construction of a tarmac for P-3C surveillance
planes and housing for SDF members in the eastern African country next year,
the sources said. Japanese forces currently rent facilities owned by the
private sector and U.S. military.
The plan signals Tokyo's deeper commitment to the antipiracy mission under a
new law that took effect last Friday to expand the scope of commercial ships to
be escorted by the SDF.
The U.S. forces have also requested that Japan build its own facilities to
carry out full-fledged operations, the sources said.
At present, some 150 members of the Ground and Maritime Self-Defense Forces
stationed in Djibouti live in U.S. military lodgings near an airport. Japan
also rents a hangar for two P-3C planes and trucks from an airport management
company based in Dubai.
Tokyo has been negotiating with the Dubai firm to build a tarmac and housing
near the airport, the sources said.
Two MSDF destroyers have been escorting vessels in the pirate-infested Gulf of
Aden since the start of their operations on March 30.
The two MSDF P-3C planes have also been providing patrol flights over the gulf
and conveying information on suspicious ships to commercial ships and foreign
navies since June 11.
Piracy is rampant in the gulf and off the eastern Somali coast, where sea
bandits, often armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, are known to
hijack commercial ships and demand huge sums of money for the release of the
vessels and crew.
Countries such as the United States, the European Union countries, Russia and
China have sent their navies to the region to patrol against such pirates. Many
of them are based in Djibouti.
After the new law came into force, the 4,550-ton Harusame and the 3,500-ton
Amagiri -- two MSDF destroyers that left their bases in Japan on July 6 -- took
over escort duties from the two other destroyers on Tuesday.
In their first antipiracy operation through Thursday, the two destroyers
provided security to five vessels, including two foreign-flagged ships that
have no connections to Japan, according to the Defense Ministry.
A total of 920 ships have newly registered for SDF escorts as the law entered
into force, the ministry said.
==Kyodo
2009-07-30 22:22:24