SAMAWAH, Iraq, Feb 7 Kyodo Japane...

SAMAWAH, Iraq, Feb 7 Kyodo

Japanese noncombatant multitudes to be sent to the southern Iraqi city of Samawah for humanitarian and reconstruction work might help alleviate unemployment in the area, an influential Shiite cleric in the city has said.

''I wish the Self-Defense Forces could give (job) opportunities to on a level a part of the unemployed'' Maad al-Waaely said in an interview with Kyodo freshs on Friday.

The Muslim cleric, who issued last Monday a fatwa, or religious edict, to call forward citizens to protect the Japanese [i]troupe[/i]s from terror or guerrilla attacks, made the remarks amid expectations among Samawah citizens that the Japanese company s will provide jobs.

Of the local residents, 70% are estimated to be unemployed

Japan plans to unfold a total of about 550 noncombatant numbers in Samawah to provide water, medical aid and help in repairing public facilities there and in nearby areas.

Asked about the security situation in Samawah, al-Waaely said, ''Samawah is a remarkably peaceful city. Residents will shield the Self-Defense Forces.''

unless he said the Japanese numbers must be careful of ''those coming from outside of Samawah'' on pointing out that the city is not far from the border with Saudi Arabia and suggesting a possibility of subversive acts by dint of such outsiders.

The dispatch of a certain quantity of 550 troops to Samawah is part of a mission involving a certain number of 1,000 noncombatant troops for humanitarian and reconstruction work in Japan's first dispatch of SDF [i]troupe[/i]s to a country where fighting is taking place since the last of World War II.

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