RIGHTS-JAPAN: Tokyo Urged to Step Up Pressure on Indonesia

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Apr 21 1999 (IPS) - Human rights activists worried over increasing violence in East Timor are urging Tokyo to use its influence on Jakarta and help end the crisis to allow a successful vote on the territory’s future.

Pointing to Japan’s close economic ties with Indonesia and the generous aid it gives annually to the South-east Asian country, activists say Tokyo is well-positioned to press Jakarta to stop the fighting between armed factions in East Timor.

“There is no doubt that Japan as Indonesia’s main donor can exert influence by just putting conditions such as a deadline for military withdrawal in East Timor,” said Akihita Matsuo, an Osaka University professor who heads the East Timor Coalition Group in Japan.

“Otherwise we will see a situation like Kosovo in the region,” he pointed out.

But Tokyo is resisting suggestions for it to take a more active role in the matter, preferring instead to rely on its usual low- key diplomacy.

This in spite of the Japanese government’s own concern that the worsening situation in East Timor would threaten peace and security in Asia.

Said Jun Tamazaki, an official at the Foreign Ministry: “Japan has no intention of taking any steps that might be seen as interfering with the United Nations-sponsored negotiations between Portugal and Indonesia toward bringing a solution (in East Timor).”

He affirms, however, that Tokyo is considering a proposal by Australia for the formation of a “contact group”, comprising several nations including Japan and the United States, to act as arbitrator in East Timor.

Foreign ministers of Indonesia and Portugal begin a second round of talks Thursday in New York regarding an election in East Timor in July. The vote is supposed to decide once and for all the future of the disputed area.

Making up half of Timor Island, East Timor is a former Portuguese colony that was invaded by Indonesian forces in 1975 and annexed as the country’s 26th province the next year. The United Nations has never recognised Indonesia’s move.

The area has not known peace since, and an estimated 200,000 Timorese have died in the last 24 years as a result of fighting there, as well as of starvation and disease.

But while clashes used to be confined to those between the Indonesian military assigned there and members of the pro- independence movement, recent violence has come from militia groups claiming pro-integration sentiments.

Human rights activists say it is no coincidence that these militia organisations surfaced soon after Indonesia in January announced that it would offer independence to East Timor should the people there reject an autonomy proposal.

In the months since, pro-integration militias have staged various acts of intimidation and violence against pro-independence supporters throughout East Timor.

Last weekend, at least 20 people were killed in a militia rampage in the East Timorese capital of Dili. Many activists have accused Indonesia of secretly supporting the militias in a bid to sabotage the coming election, but Jakarta has denied the charges.

Critics argue that Japan’s neutral stance on East Timor is but proof that it regards its economic interests in Indonesia as a higher priority than human rights.

Remarked Hideaki Morihara of the Japan chapter of the human rights group Amnesty International: “It is imperative at least that Japan voices its disapproval of the situation to the Indonesian government.”

Instead, he says, “Japan is losing another golden opportunity to prove its commitment to the protection of human rights by not pressuring the Indonesian government to bring peace in East Timor.”

Japanese officials say, though, that Tokyo has not been silent on the issue.

“We have been bringing up the subject of peace in East Timor with the Indonesian government on many occasions, even before the recent fighting,” insisted dYamazaki. “There is no question that everything must be done to restore peace before violence escalates any further.”

But even Japanese politicians apparently think that Tokyo needs to do more. A parliamentary group has devoted much effort in the current Diet session to try convincing the government not to hesitate in joining the Canberra-proposed contact group.

Members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have also suddenly found themselves on the same side as the Social Democratic Party and other opposition groups in urging the government to participate in bringing democracy not only in East Timor but elsewhere in Asia.

Like many activists, the politicians may have finally noticed that while Japan has been telling other Asian governments to protect human rights, the Asian superpower itself has opted to maintain only soft pressure on repressive governments such as the military junta in Burma.

“Japan has defined its position as (broker) between Asian and Western countries,” said Matsuo. “This does not mean it can ignore the demand for better justice and human rights in South- east Asia.”