The Ground Self-Defense Force advance team in Iraq is effectively unable to discuss its reconstruction agenda with local municipal authorities, according to GSDF officials.
This is because the councils of the two cities in which the noncombat troops will conduct their activities are not functioning properly, the officials said.
Despite the deployment of an advance GSDF team to southern Iraq, the city councils of Samawah and nearby Rumaythah are virtually shut down because most council members have either resigned or gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca.
The GSDF did not know that the councils were not working properly until the advance team entered Iraq on Monday, according to GSDF officials.
Before deciding to dispatch Self-Defense Forces units to the Mideast, Japan sent fact-finding teams to Iraq to study local conditions.
The dysfunctional council scenario suggests that the GSDF lacks the information-gathering capabilities needed to carry out reconstruction activities.
The GSDF is believed to have been largely dependent on information provided by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority and Dutch troops.
The Ground Staff Office in Tokyo said the advance team had planned to visit the councils Tuesday, the day after it entered Iraq from Kuwait.
"We are in trouble" because the GSDF does not know when it can have contact with the councils, a GSDF official in Tokyo said.
According to Samawah council sources, nine out of 12 members of the council, including its chairman, have left for Mecca without informing the CPA.