Chapter 2

5. Conflicts, Disasters and Development

(1) Conflict and Development

In July 2000 Japan announced “Action from Japan on ‘Conflict and Development’,” which provides comprehensive support through ODA in ways that help alleviate hardship at all stages of the conflict cycle, from conflict prevention to emergency humanitarian assistance, support for rehabilitation and reconstruction, prevention of conflict recurrence and full-scale development aid.

As stated in Part I, Japan intends to strengthen cooperation for the consolidation of peace and nation building in countries suffering from conflict. This policy is a pillar of Japan’s international cooperation. Taking this into account, Japan is providing assistance continuously in accordance with changing situations, ranging from emergency humanitarian assistance in conflict situations and assistance to expedite the ending of conflicts, to “consolidation of peace” and “nation-building” in post-conflict situations. These efforts are mentioned in the revised ODA Charter in the section about the priority issue of peace-building.

As a new assistance need, the peace-building sector occupies an increasingly large percentage of total assistance. Japan is not neglecting the development of other countries and regions, or development in other sectors. The issue of how to appropriately implement assistance in a form that meets these various needs with a limited ODA budget has become extremely important.

Japan’s assistance in this sector in fiscal year 2002, in addition to the support for Afghanistan and Sri Lanka introduced in Part I , includes support for nation-building in Cambodia and East Timor—countries that are undergoing reconstruction from conflict and unrest—and support for the promotion of peace in Aceh in Indonesia and Mindanao in the Philippines.

In Cambodia, a negative legacy of long years of conflict is the problem of the large number of small arms and light weapons remaining in the hands of the general public. Japan is actively supporting the nation-building of Cambodia primarily through poverty reduction. In addition, in fiscal year 2002 Japan used grant aid for conflict prevention and peace building to support the “Peace Building and Comprehensive Small Arms Management Program,” a project which provides infrastructure development requested by local residents (repair and construction of roads, wells, bridges, schools, etc.) in exchange for the voluntary surrender of small arms and light weapons by them, and carries out development of Government of Cambodia systems to manage and register small arms and light weapons.

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (hereafter referred to as “Timor-Leste”) achieved independence in May 2002 after enduring many years of suffering. The stability of Timor-Leste—the newest country in Asia—is extremely important for the stability of the entire Asian region. Japan is supporting the nation-building of Timor Leste, which is aimed at development and self-sufficiency. At the Donors’ Meeting for East Timor held in Dili in May 2002 just before independence, Japan announced that it would provide assistance of up to $60 million over the following three years and it has been steadily implementing assistance focused on reconstruction and development.

Weapons being burned at a weapons destruction ceremony in Cambodia

Column 5

Support for a Workshop for Reconciliation attended by Israeli and Palestinian Bereaved Families

Since the outbreak of conflict (the Intifada) in September 2000 a total of 3,428 lives have been lost in Israel and Palestine (829 on the Israeli side, 2,599 on the Palestinian side) (as of November 2003), leading to implant deep distrust and hatred in the two peoples. Under the circumstances, in fiscal year 2003, Japan commenced assistance through grassroots human security grant aid for a joint Israeli-Palestinian project with the aim of promoting trust between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples based on the concept of human security. Japan decided to support the “Parents’ Circle-Families Forum,” a local NGO that has been soberly and honestly working at the person-to-person level for the peaceful coexistence and mutual reconciliation of the two peoples. The NGO consists of Israeli and Palestinian bereaved families who share the painful experience of having lost beloved relatives and children in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and currently it has more than 500 members. It is primarily engaged in mutual support of the members and educational activities to advocate the need for peace to prevent the occurrence of further tragedy. In 2002 it conducted more than 1,600 lectures in high schools in Israel. With Japan’s assistance (approximately $80,000 provided), a large-scale workshop was held over two days—January 23–24, 2004—with the participation of more than 150 bereaved families from both communities. The entire Seven Arches Hotel in East Jerusalem was booked for the workshop where group sessions for the bereaved families to talk about past tragedies, and debates about how to realize reconciliation between Israel and Palestine and a variety of other discussions were held. In a space secluded from a world in which “conflict” is a daily fact of life, the members of the bereaved families on both sides, who would normally be enemies, spent two days living under the same roof and talking about the past tragedies of each individual. One of the participants, Mr. G (a Palestinian) experienced the following tragic incident. He was out driving with his family when they were ambushed by Israeli soldiers. His wife and daughter were murdered in front of him and he was also shot eight times. He said “I do not hate the Israelis. What I hate is the occupation policy of the Government of Israel and the current reality that reconciliation cannot be achieved between the two sides.” Also, Ms. S, an Israeli who lost her daughter in a suicide bombing, said “Simply because there has been no reconciliation between the two sides, I lost my daughter. The only way to avoid further tragedy is to achieve reconciliation between the two.” The workshop was not limited to providing an opportunity for the participants to transcend the fact that they were enemies and offering mutual support to heal the pain shared by all who had tragic experiences of losing their own parents, brothers, sisters, children, and others. It was also a first step toward reconciliation between the two communities. Today, most Israelis have a preconception that Palestinians are terrorists and most Palestinians think of Israelis as cold-blooded occupiers. The distrust and hatred that has taken root in the two communities has been a major factor causing further damage to the already stagnating Middle East peace process. Projects like that the above to promote trust between the two communities are valuable and important attempts to achieve stability in the region. Interestingly, one of the participating bereaved families made the following comment. “At the time when Israel was founded (1948), Japan was still a country devastated by its defeat in war. Half a century later Japan has become a major economic power while my country is still in the midst of a futile killing field. Why such a difference!? Assistance from a country which left hate behind and achieved peace carries a lot of weight. I think we have a lot to learn from Japan.”

In the Aceh region of Indonesia agreement was reached between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) concerning the “cessation of hostilities in Aceh” on December 9, 2002. In advance of this agreement, Japan held the “Preparatory Conference on Peace and Reconstruction in Aceh” in Tokyo on December 3, 2002, expressed its strong hope for a peaceful resolution of the conflict and announced that it was preparing to actively provide reconstruction and development assistance to the Aceh region after peace had been achieved. This conference, which was held due to an initiative by Japan, played a significant role in backing efforts by the parties in the conflict to reach a peace agreement. And at the Twelfth CGI (Consultative Group for Indonesia) Meeting held in January 2003, Japan announced not only financial cooperation amounting to $6.2 million to promote and support the peace process in Aceh, but also would provide technical cooperation. Of this announcement, in fiscal year 2002, Japan provided food assistance, support for the supervision of monitoring of the cessation of hostilities to Aceh and assistance, including Japan’s Grant Assistance for grassroots human security projects, etc. to Aceh.

However, subsequently the framework for the cessation of hostilities in Aceh collapsed and the Government of Indonesia imposed martial law on the Aceh region in May 2003. Since then the peace process in the region has been deadlocked with the increase of military clashes between the Indonesian law security authorities and GAM increasing, etc. Since the access of foreign ODA staff to Aceh has been restricted because of the active conflict, it is continuously difficult for assistance to reach residents. Japan is in the position to support the peaceful resolution of the Aceh issue based on the principle that the territorial integrity of Indonesia should be maintained, and intends to carry out every kind of lateral support necessary to achieve this goal.

In the Mindanao region of the Philippines conflicts involving various anti-government forces have continued, poverty issue has been worsening and the region has become a hotbed of terrorism since the 1970s. This situation is hindering the economic development of the entire Philippines, as such it worsens the image of the entire country as an investment destination.

In response to this situation, in June 2001 the Government of the Philippines signed a “Agreement on Peace” with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which is based in the Mindanao region. However since February 2003 military clashes have intensified and no final peace has yet been achieved. And as before, armed uprisings and terrorist incidents with the suspected involvement of extremist organizations such as the Abu Sayyaf Group, etc. are occurring and the Government of the Philippines is currently trying to sweep these organizations.

On the occasion of the visit of President Arroyo to Japan in December 2002, Japan announced its policy to provide sustained support, from the medium to longer-term viewpoints based on the “Support Package for Peace and Stability in Mindanao,” which is intended to contribute to overcoming poverty, peace talks, and the consolidation of peace in the Mindanao region. Under this package, in fiscal year 2002, Japan decided to provide loan aid to the “Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Social Fund for Peace and Development” and the “Central Mindanao Inter-regional Circumferential Road Project” through Japan’s ODA and provided assistance such as inviting the ARMM governor and 20 other ARMM officials to Japan to consult about the direction of Japan’s cooperation, introduce Japan’s regional governments, etc.

Finally, we come to an explanation of Japan’s assistance for mine action. Landmines emplaced primarily in regions suffering from conflict over may years, such as Cambodia and Afghanistan, cause indiscriminate harm to non-combatants including children and general citizens, and are an extremely serious humanitarian issue, as well as a major impediment to reconstruction and development.

In 1998 Japan proposed the “Zero Victims Program” and announced assistance amounting to some ¥10 billion over five years from 1998 for mine clearance and victim assistance in the world. The target of ¥10 billion was exceeded by the end of October 2002. Japan will continue to call for the elimination of landmines from the world and implement assistance for mine action.

And Japan decided that, as of August 2002, vehicles specialized for mine clearance and mine detectors did not correspond to the definition of weapons as defined by the Three Principles on Arms Exports, etc. and that, therefore, such equipment was exempted from export licensing.

(2) Disaster Reduction and Post-disaster Reconstruction

Japan has a lot of experience of natural disasters and is providing assistance that utilizes Japan’s knowledge and technology with respect to both disaster reduction and post-disaster reconstruction. For this reason Japan developed a coordination system centered on the relevant ministries and agencies. In fiscal year 2002 Japan provided financial assistance of ¥41.3 billion¹⁸ in loan aid and grant aid.

The policies on disaster reduction have the objective of minimizing damage through measures taken in advance. Japan’s policy on disaster reduction is to provide a wide range of assistance in order to reduce vulnerability to natural disasters such as typhoons, floods, landslides, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc. Japan is making a distinctive contribution by utilizing sophisticated technology and rich experience fostered in its vulnerable country where natural disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes occur frequently. Disbursements for disaster prevention in fiscal year 2002 through grant aid included implementation of the “Project for Improvement of Steel Bridges for Roads in Rural Areas” to rebuild bridges washed away in the large-scale floods in Bangladesh, food assistance for southern African countries such as Malawi and Zambia, where 13 million people were facing serious hunger, suffering from the worst drought of the past ten years. Concerning human resources development in the disaster prevention sector through technical cooperation, in order to train disaster prevention related human resources in Latin America, Japan has accepted trainees in cooperation with Hyogo Prefecture which experienced the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. The objectives of the training were to introduce Japan’s disaster prevention systems, learn about the disaster prevention issues in each country. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, the Building Research Institute, and JICA have been cooperating to implement “International Training on Seismology and Earthquake Engineering Training” for more than 40 years. In this program, researchers and technicians from earthquake-prone developing countries are invited to Japan for training course of seismology and earthquake engineering. The majority of the trainees who completed this training are active in the seismology and earthquake engineering sector in their own countries, working as part of a human network linking Japan with the earthquake prone regions of the world, and are playing an important role in gathering information when major earthquakes occur. With the objective of improving the disaster response capacity of the Asian region, Japan is also implementing a joint disaster prevention project in cooperation with the governments of the other Asian countries, the Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC), and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and the Kobe Relief Web Office. In this regard, Japan is carrying out educational campaigns in Papua New Guinea utilizing the lessons learned from past tsunamis, and they have produced significant results, as for example, not one death has resulting from tsunamis occurred after the campaigns. In fiscal year 2002 Japan implemented two projects: the “Early Warning System Training Project” in Bangladesh and the “Media Professional Disaster Prevention Training Project” in Laos.

Concerning post-disaster reconstruction, in order to respond quickly to large-scale disasters overseas, Japan is developing a Japan disaster relief institution to promptly dispatch personnel including experts in medical care, rescue and post-disaster reconstruction. Under the “Law Concerning the Dispatch of Japan Disaster Relief Teams,”¹⁹ assistance disbursements in fiscal year 2002 amounted to approximately ¥297 million and included two cases of dispatching Japan Disaster Relief Teams (dispatch of a total of 11 experts) and 22 cases of provision of supplies. The recipient countries often expressed gratitude for Japan’s disaster relief activities. (Please refer to Part IV for details about the assistance disbursements and the expressions of gratitude.)

In order to contribute to the effective reconstruction of the affected countries, Japan is formulating emergency reconstruction plans in those affected countries and is including among its development studies the development of emergency relief studies that implement rehabilitation projects for emergency needs. These studies have been highly praised by the recipient countries in that they will ensure the implementation of flexible and quick projects tailored to the local needs.

18. E/N basis. Excludes provision of grassroots human security grant aid and emergent rescue.
19. This law came into effect in September 1987. It was revised in June 1992 in order to allow the utilization of the technical skills, experience and organizational functions of the Japan Self-Defense Forces for Japan’s international disaster relief activities.