Sep 27 02:53 AM US/Eastern(AP) - TOKYO, Sept. 27 (Kyodo) — U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer denied Thursday allegations that fuel provided by Japan in February 2003 may have been used for U.S. operations in Iraq and promised to undertake further fact-finding to show that the fuel was used for antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan in line with a Japanese law.
"The war on Iraq did not start until March 20. The amount of fuel that was provided to the Kitty Hawk was not sufficient to get to March 20. It would have expired in a few days' time," Schieffer told reporters.
Schieffer was referring to the fuel that was supplied to a U.S. oiler by a Japanese replenishment ship on Feb. 25, 2003, in the Arabian Sea and then transferred to the U.S. carrier Kitty Hawk, which took part in the Iraq war.
The Kitty Hawk originally had been dispatched into the area under orders to participate in the Afghan-related Operation Enduring Freedom, Schieffer said.
The U.S. envoy also said, "We will, however, go back and try to investigate this matter to reassure the Japanese government that nothing out of the ordinary has happened." He also said he takes the allegation "seriously."
The assertion arose after a Japanese peace group said last week that the logbook of the U.S. oil ship Pecos and other materials suggested that the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force ship Tokiwa effectively gave illegal logistic support for the war by indirectly supplying oil to the carrier.
Japan's special law only allows the MSDF to provide fuel for foreign vessels taking part in the antiterrorism operations under the country's war-renouncing Constitution.
Schieffer made the remarks after releasing a joint statement at the Pakistani ambassador's residence in Tokyo where he and top envoys from 10 other countries met to urge Japan to continue the refueling mission in the Indian Ocean after the special law authorizing it expires Nov. 1.
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