Japanese peacekeepers arrive at the Juba airport to participate in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) in South Sudan's capital Juba, November 21, 2016. REUTERS/Jok Solomun

JUBA (Reuters) - A contingent of Japanese troops landed in South Sudan on Monday, an official said - a mission that critics say could see them embroiled in their country’s first overseas fighting since World War Two.

The soldiers will join U.N. peacekeepers and help build infrastructure in the landlocked and impoverished country torn apart by years of civil war.

But, under new powers granted by their government last year, they will be allowed to respond to urgent calls for help from U.N. staff and aid workers. There are also plans to let them guard U.N. bases, which have been attacked during the fighting.

The deployment of 350 soldiers is in line with Japanese security legislation to expand the military’s role overseas. Critics in Japan have said the move risks pulling the troops into conflict for the first time in more than seven decades.

Tsuyoshi Higuchi, from the military’s information department, told Reuters in Juba that 67 troops arrived in the morning while another 63 were expected to land in the afternoon. The last of the 350 are expected to arrive on Dec. 15, he said.

South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 - a development greeted at the time with mass celebrations in the oil-producing state. Aid agencies and world powers promised support.

But fighting, largely along ethnic lines, erupted in 2013 after President Salva Kiir sacked his longtime political rival Riek Machar from the post of vice president.

A peace deal, agreed under intense international pressure and the threat of sanctions, brought Machar back to the capital Juba in April, but he fled after more clashes and the violence has continued.</s>Japan has deployed troops to South Sudan in their first overseas deployment since the end of World War II.

Tokyo sent 350 soldiers to the UN mission in South Sudan, where they will help build infrastructure in the capital, Juba.

For the first time since the country adopted a pacifist stance more than 70 years ago, the peacekeepers will have the ability to use force to protect civilians, UN staff and themselves.

There are also plans for them to guard UN bases, which have been attacked during the country's civil war.

Japan's constitution, drafted under US direction after the war, forbids the use of force in settling international disputes, but the government has reinterpreted the constitution to allow Japanese troops to use force in some situations.

Approved by the Japanese legislature in 2015, the expanded capacity to use force was opposed by some in Japan who feared that it could entangle the country's military in an overseas conflict and were concerned it violates Japan's anti-war constitution.

However, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe argued that the broader military powers give Japan the ability to respond to growing threats, including China's growing military assertiveness and North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 — a development greeted at the time with mass celebrations in the oil-producing state.

Aid agencies and world powers promised support, but fighting, mostly along ethnic lines, erupted in 2013 after President Salva Kiir sacked his longtime political rival Riek Machar from the post of vice president.

A peace deal, agreed under intense international pressure and the threat of sanctions, brought Mr Machar back to the capital in April, but he fled after more clashes and the violence has continued.</s>Backed by a reinterpreted constitution, Japanese peacekeepers who arrived in South Sudan on Monday will be allowed to use force to protect civilians, themselves, and UN staff for the first time in nearly 70 years.

About 350 troops from Japan’s Self-Defense Forces replace Japanese peacekeepers who were previously on the ground serving in the United Nations mission in South Sudan, an East African country in the midst of a civil war that has raged since December 2013. More than 12,000 UN peacekeepers are in South Sudan. They have been criticized for failure to protect civilians.

Until 2015, Japan’s constitution, which was written under the guidance of the US after World War II, forbade the use of force to settle international disputes. But now, in a controversial decision last year, the Japanese legislature relaxed the limits on force, raising opponents' concerns that the new interpretation of the pacifist constitution could embroil the country's military in international conflict.

Recommended: Think you know Japan? Take our quiz to find out.

“The Abe administration may think that the new mandate, which will be given to the 350 Ground Self-Defense Force personnel to be dispatched there next month, will bring Japan’s peacekeeping mission closer to international standards,” according to a Japan Times editorial. “But the government should also be aware of, and be accountable for, what it could possibly entail.”

The main objective of the newly deployed troops is to help rebuild infrastructure in the nation’s capital, Juba. But now, they are allowed to patrol and protect UN peacekeepers’ camps and “fire warning shots to make an armed group back off and have approval to fire directly at assailants if they determine themselves to be in life-threatening danger,” writes Julian Ryall from Japan for the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

Japanese conservatives, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have long argued that Japan should be able to serve a more meaningful role in international peacekeeping and have the power to assist those in danger.

Mr. Abe also has pushed for the need for more military powers amid growing threats from China's increasingly forceful military and North Korea's nuclear ambitions. His government recently requested another increase in spending on Japan’s military to expand missile defenses. If approved, this would be the nation’s fifth consecutive annual increase in military spending, according to The New York Times.

Some worry that the country is straying from its commitment to pacifism, a shift that could escalate tensions with China and North Korea.

“We’re in the middle of what is commonly called the security dilemma,” Richard Samuels, a Japan specialist and the director of the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the Times.

“When one nation does something which it believes to be defensive and in its own interests, its competitor will see it as threatening and see it as offensive, and then you get this arms race and security dilemma,” he said. “That’s very much in play here.”

This report includes material from the Associated Press.
• Think you know Japan? Take our quiz to find out.
• Japan, Germany shake off WWII arms constraints. A cause for concern?

Become a part of the Monitor community
• Link up with us!</s>Members of the Japan Self-Defense Forces arrive as part of a first batch who have a broader mandate to use force, at the airport in Juba, South Sudan Monday, Nov. 21, 2016. Japanese peacekeepers, with a broader mandate to use force, landed in South Sudan in the first such deployment of the country's troops overseas with those expanded powers in nearly 70 years. (AP Photo/Justin Lynch)

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Japanese peacekeepers, with a broader mandate to use force, landed in South Sudan Monday, the first overseas deployment of the country's troops with those expanded powers in nearly 70 years.

Dressed in green camouflage uniform, Squad leader Yoshino Tanaka stepped off the plane at the head of the Japanese group. He was greeted and shook hands with Japan's ambassador to South Sudan, Masahiko Kiya.

The 350 Self-Defense Forces will replace a previous contingent of Japanese peacekeepers who served in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, but did not have mandate to use force. The new troops will be tasked with engineering and construction in the capital, Juba.

For the first time since the end of World War II, these peacekeepers will have the ability to use force to protect civilians, U.N. staff and themselves. Japan's constitution, drafted under U.S. direction after the war, forbids the use of force in settling international disputes but the government has reinterpreted the constitution to allow Japanese troops to use force in some situations.

Approved by the Japanese legislature in 2015, the expanded capacity to use force was opposed by some in Japan who feared that it could entangle the country's military in an overseas conflict and that it violates Japan's anti-war constitution.

But Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe argued that the broader military powers give Japan the ability to respond to growing threats that include China's growing military assertiveness and North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

The deployment shows the growing trust the Japanese public places in its Self-Defense Forces, Sheila Smith, a senior fellow for Japan studies at the Council on Foreign Relations told the Associated Press.

However she said that many "people are worried that this first case of the Self-Defense Force's greater powers could run into problems and be put into a bad situation in South Sudan."

The Self-Defense Force's expanded powers will first be tested in South Sudan, the troubled East African nation that has seen continuous fighting since its civil war broke out in December 2013. There are more than 12,000 U.N. peacekeepers already in South Sudan, who have faced criticism for failing to protect civilians.

In July, two Chinese peacekeepers died and five others were wounded after their vehicle was struck with a rocket propelled grenade as fighting swept Juba.

Japan's Self-Defense Forces will still not be able to engage with an opposing army in combat, like South Sudan's, the only force that is currently in the capital, said the Council on Foreign Relations' Smith.

"It's not as if Japan has unleashed its military," she said. "It is simply allowing them to use their weapons to protect civilians, to be proper peacekeepers."

This story was corrected to show the proper order of the Japanese ambassador's name is Masahiko Kiya and that Japanese Prime Minister's first name is spelled Shinzo.</s>JUBA, South Sudan — Japanese peacekeepers, with a broader mandate to use force, landed in South Sudan Monday, the first overseas deployment of the country's troops with those expanded powers in nearly 70 years.

Dressed in green camouflage uniform, Squad leader Yoshino Tanaka stepped off the plane at the head of the Japanese group. He was greeted and shook hands with Japan's ambassador to South Sudan, Kiya Masahiko.

The 350 Self-Defense Forces will replace a previous contingent of Japanese peacekeepers who served in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, but did not have mandate to use force. The new troops will be tasked with engineering and construction in the capital, Juba.

For the first time since the end of World War II, when Japan enacted a law enshrining pacifism in its military, these peacekeepers will have the ability to use force to protect civilians, U.N. staff and themselves.

For Japan, the deployment shows the growing trust the public places in its Self-Defense Forces, Sheila Smith, a senior fellow for Japan studies at the Council on Foreign Relations told the Associated Press.

However she said that many "people are worried that this first case of the Self-Defense Force's greater powers could run into problems and be put into a bad situation in South Sudan."

Approved in 2015, the expanded capacity to use force was opposed by some in Japan who feared that it could entangle the country's military in an overseas conflict and that it violates Japan's anti-war constitution.

But Japanese Prime Minister Shinto Abe argued that the broader military powers give Japan the ability to respond to growing threats that include China's growing military assertiveness and North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

The Self-Defense Force's expanded powers will first be tested in South Sudan, the troubled East African nation that has seen continuous fighting since its civil war broke out in December 2013. There are more than 12,000 U.N. peacekeepers already in South Sudan, who have faced criticism for failing to protect civilians.

In July, two Chinese peacekeepers died and five others were wounded after their vehicle was struck with a rocket propelled grenade as fighting swept Juba.

Japan's Self-Defense Forces will still not be able to engage with an opposing army - like South Sudan's - the only force that is currently in the capital, said the Council on Foreign Relations' Smith.

"It's not as if Japan has unleashed its military," she said.</s>Japanese peacekeepers, with a broader mandate to use force, land in South Sudan, the first overseas deployment of the country's troops with those expanded powers in nearly 70 years.

The 350 Self-Defense Forces will replace a contingent of Japanese peacekeepers who served in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, but did not have the mandate to use force. The incoming troops will be tasked with engineering and construction in the capital, Juba.

For the first time since the end of World War II, when Japan enacted a law enshrining pacifism in its military, these peacekeepers will have the ability to use force to protect civilians, U.N. staff and themselves.

Experts say the deployment indicates Japan's growing trust in its Self-Defense Forces.</s>Members of the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force (GSDF) arrive at the airport in Juba, South Sudan, on November 21, 2016. The group, mostly engineers, will construct roads and facilities and are also assigned for the first time under Japan’s new security law, which enables GSDF troops to use weapons to rescue UN staff under attack. PHOTO | SAMIR BOL | AFP

A contingent of Japanese troops landed in South Sudan on Monday, an official said - a mission that critics say could see them embroiled in their country's first overseas fighting since World War Two.

The soldiers will join UN peacekeepers and help build infrastructure in the landlocked and impoverished country torn apart by years of civil war.

But, under new powers granted by their government last year, they will be allowed to respond to urgent calls for help from UN staff and aid workers. There are also plans to let them guard UN bases, which have been attacked during the fighting.

The deployment of 350 soldiers is in line with Japanese security legislation to expand the military's role overseas. Critics in Japan have said the move risks pulling the troops into conflict for the first time in more than seven decades.

Tsuyoshi Higuchi, from the military's information department, told Reuters in Juba that 67 troops arrived in the morning while another 63 were expected to land in the afternoon. The last of the 350 are expected to arrive on December 15, he said.

South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 - a development greeted at the time with mass celebrations in the oil-producing state. Aid agencies and world powers promised support.

But fighting, largely along ethnic lines, erupted in 2013 after President Salva Kiir sacked his longtime political rival Riek Machar from the post of vice president.

A peace deal, agreed under intense international pressure and the threat of sanctions, brought Machar back to the capital Juba in April, but he fled after more clashes and the violence has continued.</s>The soldiers will join U.N. peacekeepers and help build infrastructure in the landlocked and impoverished country torn apart by years of civil war.

But, under new powers granted by their government last year, they will be allowed to respond to urgent calls for help from U.N. staff and aid workers. There are also plans to let them guard U.N. bases, which have been attacked during the fighting.

The deployment of 350 soldiers is in line with Japanese security legislation to expand the military's role overseas. Critics in Japan have said the move risks pulling the troops into conflict for the first time in more than seven decades.

Tsuyoshi Higuchi, from the military's information department, told Reuters in Juba that 67 troops arrived in the morning while another 63 were expected to land in the afternoon. The last of the 350 are expected to arrive on Dec. 15, he said.

South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 - a development greeted at the time with mass celebrations in the oil-producing state. Aid agencies and world powers promised support.

But fighting, largely along ethnic lines, erupted in 2013 after President Salva Kiir sacked his longtime political rival Riek Machar from the post of vice president.

A peace deal, agreed under intense international pressure and the threat of sanctions, brought Machar back to the capital Juba in April, but he fled after more clashes and the violence has continued.</s>It is highly disingenuous and hypocritical of both the United Nations Secretary-General and the Kenyan government to pretend to take the moral high ground regarding the sacking of the force commander of the UN Mission in South Sudan, Lieutenant-General Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki, who has been accused of failing to protect foreign aid workers in Juba from being attacked by troops allied to the Sudanese government.

For example, in late 1993, when Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire, the commander of the UN peacekeeping forces in Rwanda, began receiving reports that the Hutu-dominated government was accumulating weapons in various caches around Kigali, he requested permission to raid these caches, but was ordered not to so by the then head of UN peacekeeping, Kofi Annan, ostensibly because the raids would be construed as being “hostile to the Rwandan government”.

Similarly, when more than 8,000 Muslim men were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica, neither the Dutch peacekeepers who were sent there to protect them nor the UN took responsibility for the massacre.

The UN Secretary-General has also been rather lax about investigating reports about atrocities committed by government-supported forces in Darfur and about the role of the UN’s peacekeeping mission in western Sudan in covering up these crimes.

One UN whistleblower who lifted the lid on these atrocities says that the cover-up of such crimes is just the tip of the iceberg of human rights violations committed under the UN’s watch.

The UN also recently came under fire for covering up the sexual abuse of children by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, and for suspending the whistleblower who exposed the abuse. In several countries, the presence of UN peacekeepers has actually made security and stability more precarious.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the presence of nearly 20,000 UN peacekeeping troops as part of the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has failed to bring about peace or development in this resource-rich but blighted country.

So Mr Ban is hardly in a position to play the good cop in the case of South Sudan. But then nor is Kenya. Kenya’s involvement in peacekeeping missions has been marred by allegations of colluding with local people to rob countries of their natural resources.

Kenya has in recent years also demonstrated that it has little respect for international law; its campaign to convince African countries to pull out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has shown that it is willing to sacrifice the rule of law if doing so benefits those in power.

Instead of asking African countries to withdraw from the ICC because it perceives the court to be racist, Kenya could have championed the cause of compelling the UN Security Council to refer other people who are not Africans to the ICC — people such as George Bush and Tony Blair, who are responsible for tens of thousands of civilian deaths in the illegal war they waged against Iraq, or the leaders of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, whose barbaric forms of torture and killing have shocked the world, and even President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, who are currently engaged in a war against their own people.
A detachment of Japanese troops land in South Sudan to aid in U.N. peacekeeping operations, Japan's first such action since World War II.