JAPAN-UN: Blame Balkan Mess on the U.N., Not Akashi – Tokyo Press

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Oct 18 1995 (IPS) - Yasushi Akashi’s resignation as U.N. special envoy to former Yugoslavia reflects a failed U.N. policy — and not a personal failure, say Japanese analysts.

In the wake of Akashi’s resignation last week, Japan’s Press has come to the defence of the U.N. Under-Secretary General, who throughout his nearly two years as special envoy to the region, was under the constant critical eye of the Western media.

Washington too was privately critical of Akashi who was deemed to have been too soft on the Bosnian Serbs. His reluctance to use force and his constant reliance on often frustrating negotiations made him a symbol of the diplomatic stagnation of the four-year Bosnian war.

But as far as Japanese public opinion is concerned, Akashi should be praised rather than criticised for maintaining an air of impartiality in the war. Akashi adhered to “professional impartiality”, said the ‘Yomuiri Shinbun’, Japan’s largest newspaper.

Instead, it can be said that the U.N. peacekeeping operations mandate did not accord with reality of the Bosnian situation, said the ‘Tokyo Shinbun’. “Akashi’s resignation seems to symbolise the failure of U.N. peacekeeping operations,” the daily added in its editorial.

In announcing his resignation last week, Akashi explained that the U.N. role has changed in recent months following successful Croatian offensives and airstrikes on Bosnian Serb positions by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

Akashi admitted he was happy that NATO took the lead in pushing for a tougher line on Bosnia. “Both the secretary-general and myself, to be frank, were relieved…that we did not have that awesome responsibility of having our finger on the trigger for air strikes.”

Still, he noted, using force differs from the philosophy of strict impartiality which he believes U.N. peacekeepers must uphold.

Akashi, 65, a former bureaucrat in the Japanese foriegn ministry, climbed into the international limelight when he was chosen by U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to head U.N. peacekeeping mission in war-torn Cambodia in 1992.

The mission proved a success paving the way for Cambodia’s first democratic elections in 1993.

As Akashi left Cambodia basking in international praise, Japan glowered in pride as well.

“If there were the equivalent of a U.N. ‘purple heart’, it should be awarded to Mr. Akashi for his role in Cambodia and the former Yugoslavia,” U.N. spokesman Joe Sills said last week after the resignation announcement.

Akashi will continue as a U.N. Under-Secretary-General, working as a special advisor to Boutros-Ghali on Asian issues, starting Nov 1.

“While Akashi is actively engaged in his duties at the United Nations, one might say that he emits the charm of a high international official and yet makes one feel a strong sense of his hometown roots,” wrote the ‘Asahi Shinbun’ a leading daily.

Akashi’s was also instrumental in convincing the Japanese authorities to break a post-war taboo by allowing its troops to take part in the 22,000 peackeeping mission in Cambodia.

Since then an emboldened Tokyo has sent troops to join U.N. peacekeeping operations in Somalia and has pledged similar support for the Golan Heights, once Syria and Israel reach agreement on the future of the strategic plateau.

All this is aimed, say analysts, at Japan’s eventual goal of becoming a permanent member in the U.N. Security Council.

As such, Akashi’s decision to bow out from former Yugoslavia amid perceptions in some Western quarters that the Japanese diplomat was at fault, has not gone down well in Tokyo — hence the rush to his defence.

The Japanese Press and analysts have lashed out at the United Nations, at the Western Press and the United States — the latter coming in for special criticism because of its continuing dominance in the world body and politics as a whole.

“While he represented one of Japan’s key international players, the fact that he had to resign and allow the United States to take over his post has greatly dimmed the high esteem many Japanese held for the United Nations,” explained Professor Takeshi Inoguchi, international relations expert at the United Nations University in Tokyo.

Analysts make the point that Japan, after the United States is the largest contributor to the world body, yet it would seem that it is the United States which somehow manages to dictate whenever there is an international issue to be resolved.

And the Bosnian question has not been resolved yet, the ‘Yomuiri Shinbun’ was quick to point, adding that the United States should not go patting itself on the back too soon.

“A U.S.-brokered ceasefire has been accepted by the Bosnian government and Bosnian Serbs. But there is no telling whether it will lead to peaceful coexistence among the conflicting groups,” the paper notes.

The Japanese are clearly fed up with Washington’s overbearing influence on the United Nations, explains Inoguchi who adds that the U.N. failure in Bosnia and Akashi’s resignation has only served to further dim Tokyo’s view of the world body.

“It shows quite frankly that the U.N. is a feeble entity without its own financial revenues and independent military,” he said.