DEVELOPMENT-JAPAN: Cambodia, Burma Blot Record on Rights, Critics Say

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Mar 7 1998 (IPS) - Long a generous source of overseas aid, Japan is coming under pressure to use its financial clout to demand improved records on human rights from its Asian neighbours like Burma and Cambodia.

This week, the Japanese foreg ministry has been deluged with letters by human rights activists and visited by campaigners asking Tokyo to push the rights criteria higher in its diplomatic and aid policies.

“Japan can do much more for human rights protection in Asia if it chooses to,” said professor Yoshinori Murai, who teaches development issues at the Sophia University in Tokyo.

Among the activists’ concerns are Japan’s decision to provide funds for Burma’s airport, and what they view as Tokyo’s failure to link the credibility of Cambodia’s polls in July to an improvement in the human rights record situation there.

Japan brokered a deal that would allow Prince Norodom Ranarridh, ousted by co-premier Hun Sen in July 1997, to return to Cambodia and run in the July election. Ranarridh’s conviction in absentia for weapons smugglin on Wednesday was part of the plan, and he is due to be pardoned by his father, King Norodom Sihanouk.

Yoshinori was part of a group from the Pacific Asia Resource Centre (PARC), a non-governmental organisation, that met with Japanese officials to protest Tokyo’s extension of a 19.8 million U.S. dollars loan for the repair of the runway at Rangoon international airport.

Tokyo says the loan does not mean a resumption of official development assistance to the Burmese junta, which was suspended after a military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 1988.

“The loan is by no way a signal of our support for the military junta. We don’t know what all the fuss is about,” said a foreign ministry official. He said the issue was simply that the runway was in a dangerous state and had to be repaired promptly.

But critics say Japan is sending the wrong message. The ‘Asahi Shimbun’ contended recently that the junta, which has been trying attract international investment, would use the loan as proof of Tokyo’s support.

Meantime, activists say Japan’s role in Cambodia gives it a chance to press for improvements in the human rights situation that has deteriorated especially since the takeover by Hun Sen.

In a report on Cambodia released here Tuesday, Amnesty said there were at least 60 documented cases of men and women who had been killed or harassed by the armed forces. Other critics have also said some people opposed to Hun Sen’s rule have also been killed.

“We believe hundreds of people are living in fear and scores have been killed. Respect for fundamental human rights has declined since the U.N. sponsored peace agreements of 1991,” Amnesty said, saying its study was based on visits made in November and December 1997.

Amnesty’s programme officer for the Asia-Pacific, Rory Mungoven, said: “Amnesty has proposed that in addition to the four pillars of a political solution put forward by Japan in February and supported by other major Western powers, there should be a guarantee from the Cambodian government that individual human rights should be respected.”

The report also said Japan — as a major player in Cambodia’s reconstruction and the biggest source of funds for its aid- dependent government — should not ignore the cries for help of ordinary people at risk because of their political beliefs.

Japan may have laid out a pragmatic plan for the holding of ‘free and credible’ presidential polls, a condition demanded by the intenational community, critics say. But the protection of individual rights as a cornerstone of the peace process is not there, they argue.

Under the Japanese plan, Ranarridh announced a ceasefire on Feb. 27 in his forces’ battles against Hun Sen’s government troops. After his trial and pardon, Ranarridh is supposed to return to Cambodia, file his candidacy and face off with Hun Sen in the election.

Mungoven says Japan’s concerns in Cambodia have been mostly political, adding there is no guarantee in the process requiring respect for rights of individuals and ocal activists to speak out.

Murai traces the weak role of human rights in Japan’s aid policy, which he says is dominated by less controversial economic concerns. This is why Tokyo prefers to work toward helping economic development and fostering trade ties, rather than delving into individual rights.

Developing countries account for some 45 percent of Japan’s total exports and half of total imports, so experts Tokyo cannot afford to severe such ties or stop buying from them.

Analyst Ikuko Ida of the Institute of Developing Economies says Japan’s aid funds are aimed at improving the daily lives of people in developing countries, through economic development as well as freedom. “But it is difficult to achieve both goals that easily,” she said.

Japan believes that its aid to poorer countries will them help in the same way massive assistance by the United States and other institutions helped launched its own economic miracle.

“This is what Japan says must be followed in the rest of Asia. This basis does not cover individual rights,” said activists Kiyokazu Koshida of PARC.