The government of Japan is preparing a fact-finding mission to study the possibility to send heavy duty helicopters to be used to carry ballot boxes during the referendum on self-determination in South Sudan.
The Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force CH-47 Chinook helicopters would operate under UNMIS control.The government is expected to make a final decision on the dispatch of the large transport helicopters in July.
Japanese heavy duty helicopters participated in several U.N. peacekeeping operations, including in Cambodia, Mozambique, East Timor and Sudan.