WILL THE GSDF GO TO SUDAN?

Shingetsu Newsletter Nos. 14, 48, and 69 have tracked Japan’s involvement in the UNMIS operations in southern Sudan. Most recently, the young Arabist diplomat Yusuke Kudo was sent to that country to work as an analyst. Now comes new of a further development: According to the Nihon Keizai Shinbun, Japan is considering sending some GSDF officers to Sudan as well.

Actually, the UN had asked Japan to send GSDF forces to Sudan some time ago. However, Japan refused that request in early April of this year. Now, apparently, Tokyo is changing its mind to some degree.

The current plan, which has not yet been confirmed, is that several GSDF officers would be sent to southern Sudan as PKO commanders: there would not be any regular troops. If this plan is adopted, it would be the first time that Japan has operated in this fashion. Some Japanese officials would regard this dispatch of GSDF officers as a sort of test case that might afterwards be applied to other PKO missions.

Also in relation to Japan’s efforts in Sudan is the following announcement from MOFA:

Emergency Grant Aid to Sudan
September 16, 2005

1- To support the consolidation of peace in the Republic of Sudan, which entered the stage of national reconstruction after the conclusion of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005, the Government of Japan has decided to extend emergency grant aid totaling about $32,100,000 (about 3,400 million yen). The amount of aid to each organization is as follows: about $10 million to the World Food Programme (WFP), about $8.9 million to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), $8.6 million to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and about $4.6 million to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

2- The decision to provide this assistance was made in order to prepare sufficiently for the full-scale repatriation of the refugees and internally displaced persons to the south of Sudan which will start soon after the end of the rainy season. The specific projects for which Japan extends assistance will be as follows:

(1) Laying and repair of roads (WFP)

(2) Support for protection, repatriation and resettlement of refugees and internally displaced persons (including support for the Darfur region) (UNHCR)

(3) Construction of elementary schools and provision of textbooks (UNICEF)

(4) Support for registration and repatriation of internally displaced persons (IOM)

3- In April 2005 Japan announced that it would provide Sudan $100 million for the near term, and this assistance is part of the pledged aid. Of the $100 million, Japan has already contributed about $24 million (about 2,600 million yen). The present assistance brings the total already provided or decided upon to about $56 million (about 6,000 million yen), more than half of the amount pledged by Japan.

4- Japan hopes for early consolidation of peace in Africa as a whole including Sudan, and intends to continue its proactive support for that purpose.