Thousands of protesters gathered Sunday in Tokyo to demonstrate against the dispatch of Self-Defense Forces to Iraq on the eve of the government's expected announcement that the go order would be given to send a core ground unit.

The estimated 6,000 protesters marched through central Tokyo after hearing speeches at Hibiya Park by a relative of an American killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States and representatives from a telephone counseling group in Hokkaido for SDF troops and their families.

The rally was organized by World Peace Now, a network of 47 grassroots and nongovernmental organizations.

Under a law enacted last year, Japan plans eventually to deploy about 1,000 SDF troops to provide humanitarian and reconstruction assistance in "noncombat" zones in Iraq.

Despite heated debate over the deployment for constitutional and security reasons, the government has sent advance teams of the Air Self-Defense Force to Kuwait and Qatar to plan logistics details and of the Ground Self-Defense Force to Samawah, southern Iraq, to assess security.

The first unit of the main contingent of air troops arrived in Kuwait on Friday. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was expected to give the go-ahead Monday for the dispatch of a core unit of the ground troops to Iraq.

World Peace Now was formed last January to take action against the U.S.-led war on Iraq.

Kuwait base repairs

The Defense Agency is considering repairing, free of charge, war-damaged facilities at a Kuwaiti air base, where Air Self-Defense Force personnel are stationed on a mission to help rebuild Iraq, agency officials said.

In addition to repairing the facilities at Ali Al Salem Air Base for the ASDF's use, the agency is hoping the renovation, as a contribution to the local region, would create a good impression, the officials said.

"By helping to reconstruct the air base, we can also gain trust from the Kuwaiti forces," a senior Defense Agency official said on condition of anonymity. "Also, if the ASDF is to be stationed there for a long time in the future, it will be good to have its own facilities."

From the air base, the ASDF unit is to airlift food, medicine and other supplies to Iraq using three C-130 transport planes, starting next month under the command of U.S.-led coalition forces.

The base, which belongs to the Kuwaiti Air Force, is in a desert area in western Kuwait. It was occupied by the Iraqi military that invaded in August 1990 and many facilities were destroyed by U.S. precision-guided bombs during the 1991 Gulf War.

The U.S. military used the air base after the Gulf War but only repaired necessary facilities and neglected other damaged buildings such as hangars.

The ASDF troops now at the base have their command headquarters and accommodations in unoccupied space in Kuwaiti military buildings. The C-130 planes, expected to arrive by the end of this month, are scheduled to be temporarily parked in hangars used by the U.S. and other forces.

The agency is planning to repair the damaged facilities for parking and maintenance of the C-130 aircraft.

Kuwaiti authorities welcome the agency's plan to repair the facilities for free and have told the ASDF which areas they hope to have renovated so their own forces can make use of them in the future, the officials said.

Vehicles and rockets belonging to the Iraqi forces that were destroyed by the U.S. during the Gulf War are piled up near the base. It is also said that unexploded bombs still lie buried in the area.

Samawah cop killed

SAMAWAH, Iraq (Kyodo) An Iraqi police officer was shot dead while driving a car Saturday afternoon in the southern Iraq city of Samawah where an advance team of Japanese ground troops is deployed.

Witnesses said Ground Self-Defense Force personnel soon arrived and took photos at the scene. It was the first time a police officer has been killed in Samawah since Saddam Hussein's government was toppled by invading U.S.-led forces in April.

Residents who witnessed the shooting said that around 2:45 p.m. a passenger car approached a small truck, which was on its way to a police station, on a road in the northern part of the city. Three men in the car fired automatic rifles at the police officer in the driver's seat.

The 20-year-old officer was hit in the head and elsewhere and soon died.

The shooting follows a report to the Japanese government by members of the advance team who have returned to Tokyo that Samawah is relatively safe.

Suit against dispatch

Former Posts and Telecommunications Minister Noboru Minowa plans to file a lawsuit next week to stop the dispatch of Self-Defense Forces to Iraq, claiming it violates the Constitution and the people's right to live in peace, it was learned Sunday.

The lawsuit, to be lodged with the Sapporo District Court, will also seek 10,000 yen in consolation money.

It will be the first legal action against the SDF dispatch.

Minowa, 79, a former House of Representative member of the Liberal Democratic Party, argues that the troop dispatch violates Article 9 of the Constitution, which prohibits use of force as means of settling international disputes, according to his lawyer.

His petition says the dispatch will increase the possibility of terrorist attacks not only on the SDF troops but also on Japanese at home and abroad, thus claiming that this infringes on the right to live in peace stipulated in the Constitution.