Japanese former minister of posts and telecommunications, Noboru Minowa, filed a lawsuit Wednesday in a bid to block the planned deployment of Japanese troops to Iraq, Kyodo news agency reported.
The suit, filed with the Sapporo District Court, is the first legal action against the troop deployment, which was formally ordered Monday amid protests by thousands in Tokyo against Japan's military presence in Iraq.
The 600-strong ground force deployment will be Japan's first to a combat zone since World War II. The first wave of soldiers will be armed with heavy artillery such as shoulder-mounted weapons and recoilless guns, Kyodo reported.
Backed by a team of 106 lawyers, Minowa, who also served as parliamentary vice defence minister, is arguing that the deployment violates Article 9 of the Constitution, which prohibits the use of force as a means of settling international disputes, Kyodo said.
He also says the dispatch will increase the possibility of terrorist attacks not only on deployed Japanese troops but also on Japanese at home and abroad, Kyodo said.
"Today's lawsuit is just the first step. We would like to develop our action to stop the dispatch together with many citizens in the days to come," Kyodo quoted one of Minowa's lawyers as saying.
Parliamentary deliberations on Japan's reconstruction measures in Iraq were stalled Wednesday after opposition lawmakers refused to participate until Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi retracted what they called "deceptive" statements he made about the security situation in southern Iraq, Kyodo said.
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