Japan to send 1,000 troops to E. Timor

Japan to send 1,000 troops to E. Timor

EAST TIMOR: Japan will send just under 1,000 troops to East Timor to join UN peacekeeping operations in March next year, a news report said on Friday.

The government would announce plans to send a fact-finding mission to East Timor in mid-November ahead of dispatching Ground Self-Defense Force soldiers to the island, Jiji Press news agency said.

Under the plan, Japanese troops would help to reconstruct roads and bridges with transport materials necessary to rebuild East Timor, it said.

The mission would be Japan's first large-scale deployment of SDF troops on an overseas peacekeeping operation since Tokyo sent 1,200 soldiers to Cambodia in 1992 and 1993.

Japanese law bans its troops from joining UN peacekeeping operations in areas where a cease-fire agreement is not in place. --AFP