Key-Note Speech by H.E. Ichiro Aisawa,
Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs
("United Nations as Peacekeeper and Nation-Builder: Continuity and Change - What Lies Ahead" March 28-29, 2005, Hiroshima)
Co-Sponsored by: UNITAR-Institute of Policy Studies of Singapore
(provisional translation)
March 28, 2005
Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen
Today, I am truly delighted to be able to deliver a Key-Note Speech on behalf of the Government of Japan at the opening session of this conference, where we will discuss the future of United Nations peacekeeping.
This conference has been convened six times in the past, with a focus on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. The results of these past meetings have been submitted to the United Nations Secretary-General. As we are well aware, a part of the results was mentioned in the "Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations," chaired by Mr. Brahimi, who is present today, and they have gained high praise. On this occasion, therefore, I wish to extend my most profound respect to the sponsors as well as everyone who has contributed to the great success of this series of conferences.
For this latest event, we have gathered in Hiroshima, a city that symbolizes the aspiration for peace of the Japanese people, and people of all around the world. In July 2003, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, or UNITAR, inaugurated in Hiroshima its Office for Asia and the Pacific. We congratulate the inauguration of the office, and the decision of holding the conference here.
We thank UNITAR, and the Institute of Policy Studies of Singapore, co-sponsors of this conference, for their hard work and devotion.
Ladies and gentlemen
In today's international community, the role of United Nations PKO has continued to be diversified, and assumes increasingly greater importance.
As we all know, the concept of PKO was born soon after the foundation of the United Nations itself. PKOs have been established through Security Council resolutions or those of General Assembly, following the conclusion of cease fire agreements. They were conceived with the main objectives of acting as mediators between parties to armed conflicts, monitoring ceasefires, troop withdrawals and other actions, striving to stabilize volatile situations and prevent the recurrence of conflict, and supporting the peace process through encouraging dialogue between parties to the conflicts.
However, after the end of the Cold War, the majority of conflicts which the world has to cope with has shifted from international conflicts waged between individual countries, to more complex forms of dispute, such as internal conflicts. As a result, the role of the United Nations in striving to resolve such conflicts has been reviewed. The PKO mandate has also expanded from traditional monitoring of ceasefires to more integrated one, such as support for institutional framework including transitional administration, election monitoring, civilian police and so on. In recent years, the PKO missions have been addressing needs in various fields including human rights protection, support for repatriation of refugees and internal displaced persons, and reconstruction and development, in coordination with other specialized agencies, NGOs and other organizations. In the course of these developments, the importance of the role played by United Nations PKO in securing and maintaining international peace and security has steadily grown. Recently, this reality has been reflected in the sharp increase of the number of PKO missions established. At present, there are 16 PKO missions active around the world, with the majority in Africa and the Middle East. At the end of this February, there were some 67,000 peacekeepers from 103 different countries. Moreover, on 24th of this month, the Security Council adopted a resolution to a PKO mission, namely the 17th of its kind, in the Republic of the Sudan.
Ladies and gentlemen
Now, I would like to discuss Japan's contributions to United Nations PKO missions.
Bearing in mind the importance of promoting international peace cooperation by Japan, I have visited local sites of activity of United Nations PKOs, including the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force and the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, both of which play an important part in the Middle East Peace Process, as well as the United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor. Today, I would like to share with you my experience in Timor-Leste, where I visited in February 2004.
I was deeply impressed by the activities of members of the Engineer Group and headquarters personnel of Japan's Self-Defense Forces, dispatched to the local PKO mission site. They were involved in building roads, repairing bridges and other transport infrastructure improvements. They worked side by side with local government officials, to support the reconstruction of Timor-Leste. It is important to mention, however, that it not just Self-Defense Forces personnel who were active in Timor-Leste. Also hard at work there were Japanese personnel dispatched to international agencies or the Government of Timor-Leste, JICA representatives active in Japanese Official Development Assistance programs, Japanese NGO staff working hand in hand with the local residents, and Japanese Embassy officials present to support and coordinate all of these efforts. In this way, a truly "all-Japan" force made a stellar contribution to the nation-building of Timor-Leste. In Timor-Leste, I sensed that I was witnessing a truly fine example of what international peace cooperation as well as a new method of support for nation-building promoted by Japan should always look like.
The two PKO missions in Timor-Leste that Japan's Self-Defense Forces took part in were established to support Timor-Leste's effort of independence, and bring peace and security to the region. Within this work, the challenge faced by the international community as a whole is to support Timor-Leste in becoming self-reliant, maintaining peace and security on its own, and promoting reconstruction and development. Toward that end, it is essential that peace and security, and the foothold to rebuilding achieved through the dispatch of the UN PKO mission, including the contribution of Japan's Self-Defense Forces troops, be firmly entrenched as a sustainable state of affairs.
Japan, in the interest of making a truly lasting contribution to the reconstruction of Timor-Leste, trained officials of the Government of Timor-Leste to operate equipments related to road reconstruction, which Japanese Self-Defense Forces used, during the operation of the Engineer Group, and upon the withdrawal of the Self-Defense Forces, the equipments were donated to the Government of Timor-Leste. Moreover, after withdrawal of the Self-Defense Forces, related projects have been launched through ODA, to continuously provide operating training for such equipments. This is an effort in which the Government of Japan is working to effectively interface the activities of the Self-Defense Forces and ODA, to smoothly evolve from achievement of peace to the realm of sustainable development. It is, indeed, through the cooperation of military personnel and each parties to humanitarian and reconstruction works, along with representatives of national governments, international agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders, that Japan is striving to underscore its conviction that "peace will truly take root."
In addition to their original duties in the PKO mission, the Japanese Engineer Group was active on other fronts as well. This included efforts to popularize sports, improve health and sanitation conditions, which directly contributed to the interests of the local residents on a grassroots level. There were also tree-planting projects organized through collaboration with NGOs, and other civil-military affairs.
We believe that this comprehensive approach by Japan, aimed at bringing lasting peace to Timor-Leste, provides one approach as well as one model case of how to complement the peacekeeping and nation-building efforts by the United Nations - which is also the central agenda of this conference.
In this way, Japan is commencing a new challenge on the international fora in order to make active efforts in international peace cooperation.
To start with, Japan has become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for two years term, from the current year. In that capacity, we will actively participate and contribute to the discussions on PKO missions, and other U.N.'s security related issues. In addition, as Japan is serving as Chairman of the Working Group on Peacekeeping Operations, a subordinate committee to the Security Council, we wish to deal with the major issues faced by the PKO missions today in cooperation with countries, international agencies and other interested actors. Japan will work hard for further "transparency and accountability" in the establishment of each PKO mission, its mandates and its evolution processes, thereby supporting the activities of the Security Council. Japan is energetically involved in the launch of the Sudan PKO mission, as well as various aspects of the processes.
At this conference, we will be discussing both the continuity and the change of United Nations PKO missions, proceeding from various different perspectives. In these remarks, however, I would like to point out several issues that face the PKO efforts at present.
First, as pointed out to date in the Report of the panel chaired by Mr. Brahimi and the United Nations High Level Panel Report and on other occasions, improving the rapid deployment capacity of the missions is an extremely critical theme in order to carry out deployment of PKO in a speedy and timely manner. There is a pressing need to further study measures to further enhance this capacity.
Second, I would like to mention the problem of order and discipline of PKO personnel, as was come to light in matters of sexual exploitation and abuse. As we are aware, proper measures and various policies to prevent recurrence of incidents of this type are discussed in the United Nations. I recognize that in-depth discussion and efforts on this issue by all member countries including troop contributing countries are needed.
Third, within the role of complex PKO, especially that on "Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration," - so-called "DDR" as well as support to reconstruction and development, coordination is important with development related organizations, so-called "country teams" such as the United Nations Development Programme, and NGOs and other parties. I further believe that coordinating functions of PKO missions are needed in order to enable each organizations including PKO missions themselves to play the most of their role.
Fourth, with regard to PKO, I would like to mention the importance not only for the establishing but also for drawing exit strategies envisaging the subsequent withdrawal of the PKO missions. Over the past several years, we have seen a sharp increase in PKO missions with the majority in Africa. Clearly, however, the resources of the United Nations, as well as those of its member countries, are finite in supply. Efficient and effective management of our finite resources, obviously, is crucial for success.
Japan stands ready to actively participate in discussions of these issues at the United Nations, and continue to contribute to the causes of peace and security.
Ladies and gentlemen
As this conference convenes, I wish to emphasize that the theme of "peacekeeping and nation-building" is timely indeed, when the United Nations is striving to effectively fulfill their role. In addition, the United Nations plays an important role, such as its peacekeeping missions, in preventing the recurrence of conflicts. I hope that the discussion in this conference will bring about constructive proposals.
In this Key-Note speech, I focused on the role of United Nations peacekeeping operations. At the same time, when we take a look of the peacekeeping and nation-building role of the U.N. from a broader point of view, it will also be important to discuss, for example, roles played by multinational forces in the area of nation-building, such as in Iraq, Afghanistan and in other countries in the world. In this context, Japan plays a leading role in the area of Demilitarization, Demobilization and Reintegration in Afghanistan by, for example, negotiating directly with the central government or military factions in the territory and demobilizing 42,000 ex-Afghan Military Forces soldiers out of 60,000. Moreover, on the 20th of this month, the Report of the Secretary-General, titled "In Larger Freedom," was released. I suppose that this report will further stimulate discussion on the appropriate role of the U.N. in the future. In addition, as also indicated in the High Level Panel Report, issues such as reform of the Security Council, or proposal of a Peace-building Commission are also important to be discussed.
As the summit meeting scheduled for this September is approaching, the chances of realizing reform of the United Nations Security Council have never been greater. Japan wishes to become a permanent member of the Security Council and intends to make greater contribution to the peace and security of the world, by making best use of its ample experience in various fields such as United Nations Peacekeeping Operations.
Finally, I wish to express my most sincere gratitude and respect to the distinguished guests from so many different countries and international organizations, who have spared the precious time from their busy schedule to take part in this conference. I am confident that all of you find the experience of discussions and listening to the opinions of others rewarding, thus making this conference instructive, suggestive and fruitful for all concerned over the next two days.
Thank you for your kind attention.
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