Newsletter No. 1124
News-Analysis
August 29, 2008

 

THE IMPACT OF THE SLAYING OF KAZUYA ITO

Various groups and individuals have been reacting to slaying of aid worker Kazuya Ito in Afghanistan. Since some of these voices are also relating this matter to the question of the MSDF deployment in the Indian Ocean, we will address that here as well.

First of all, let’s review some facts of the case. In our earlier account, we said that Ito was shot several times in the leg and bled to death. The latest accounts confirm that he was shot in the leg, but he also seems to have been shot in the head as well. Two stories have emerged about what happened. A Taliban commander says that Taliban forces abducted the man, but that he was killed during a gun battle with police. Dr. Tetsu Nakamura gives quite a different account: “Maybe the kidnappers, after being cornered by villagers, thought it would be difficult to escape and killed Ito, probably by shooting him several times… Our activities have never created animosity among the local people, and there was no trouble. I don’t think it was politically motivated either. It was probably just a simple robbery.” At any rate, we do know that Ito was kidnapped, there was a chase by police and villagers, and he was shot and died. MOFA Vice-Minister and well-known LDP politician Ichita Yamamoto stated: “At the moment, there’s no concrete information about the kidnappers. We’re now studying several sources, including background information.” Mitsuji Fukumoto, who runs the Japanese headquarters of Peshawar-kai in Fukuoka, says that Ito's body was found on the morning of the 27th in a valley about three or four kilometers north of the village of Bodyalai near Dara-e-Noor, Nangarhar Province, where Ito was kidnapped.

Dr. Tetsu Nakamura also said that the security situation in Afghanistan had deteriorated since the spring snow thawed in April. According to the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief, which coordinates NGO groups working in Afghanistan, nineteen NGO workers were killed by Taliban militia forces and bandits between January and July, surpassing the total death toll in 2007. Nakamura added that anti-Japanese sentiment there was the strongest it had ever been, and they had been considering some kind of withdrawal even before the tragedy.

More information has been released on Kazuya Ito himself. He developed an interest in Afghanistan and in the Peshawar-kai's activities after the September 11 attacks and what he called “America’s retaliation bombings” of the country. Until then he had never even heard of a country called Afghanistan. He heard a lecture by a Peshawar-kai member in which it was said that “Afghanistan is a forgotten country.” This comment had a great impact on him and he began to ask himself what he could do. On his June 2003 job application, he wrote: “What I want is for Afghanistan to become a green and fertile country again. But this is not something that can be done in just two or three years. I believe that I can help the children’s future by helping to ensure that they can live in an environment without food scarcity. I don’t take this task lightly, as I am sure that the environment there is tough. But if you don’t go out there and get on the ground itself, then you can’t begin anything.” Ito was said to be popular with the local people. He became nearly fluent in Pashtun language, and local children would gather around him calling: “Kazuya! Kazuya!” He worked for years with villagers, digging irrigation canals and growing farm produce. His colleagues wondered if he might end up spending the rest of his life in the country, since he seemed to be doing so well there. He was often invited to dinners and given gifts by the local people. About three months ago, Ito spoke by phone with his mother, and she asked him about safety in the region. He replied, “I’m all right as all the people around me are very nice.” Kazuya’s father told reporters: “I can say with confidence that Kazuya is our family’s pride.”

In the wake of Ito’s slaying, the Peshawar-kai and some other Japanese aid groups are pulling out of the country. Peshawar-kai plans to pull back its remaining eight Japanese workers from Afghanistan. The Association for Aid and Relief, Japan (AAR Japan), which offers education on how to avoid land mines, evacuated its two Japanese members from Afghanistan. The Basic Human Needs Association, which offers support in the telecommunications field, has scrapped plans to dispatch two Japanese engineers to Afghanistan in October. JICA on Tuesday ordered its two employees stationed in Jalalabad not to venture outdoors. Two other NGOs, JEN and Save the Children Japan, had already pulled out before the latest incident due to worsening security conditions. On the other hand, the Shanti Volunteer Association said it will not pull out its worker in Afghanistan who has been engaged in school construction and other activities since July. A group spokesman said: “The incident is very regrettable, but we will not drastically change our activities.”

The Japanese government has mixed feelings about this pullout. On the one hand, they know that they cannot protect their people in Afghanistan. On the other hand, these kinds of NGO activities are precisely the main role that Japan has been playing in the country. For more on this, see the Yomiuri Shinbun editorial further below.

Impact on the Indian Ocean Mission

Personally, I do not believe that today’s MSDF mission in the Indian Ocean has much to do with Afghanistan. How precisely these naval refueling operations are connected to “antiterrorism” in Afghanistan I’ve never been quite so clear. No government spokesman has ever convinced me that Al-Qaida or Taliban elements are floating in the seas off the coast of Pakistan. What exactly would they be doing out there anyway? What does this have to do with Afghan support?

Still, the Japanese government has continued to assert that the Indian Ocean mission is all about its policy on Afghanistan, and so I guess we must endure this illogical connection for a while longer. Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told a press conference: “Right now each country is increasing its efforts to counter terrorism and bring domestic [Afghan] stability. If Japan leaves the battle lines, it would go completely against the moves of the international community.”

Both Prime Minister Fukuda and Machimura made another argument that is as tasteless as it is deceptive: “The best way to carry out the wishes of Mr. Ito and to show Japan’s role as a peace-fostering nation is to lend a helping hand to people in the region who are suffering from poverty and conflict.” It’s pretty clear that the Peshawar-kai and probably Ito himself were opponents of any Japanese military operations in the region. Trying to use his name to push a military deployment extension that the man himself probably opposed is both appalling and shameless.

Others have hinted or suggested openly that it is precisely the military component of Japan’s participation in the region that put aid workers such as Ito in serious danger. That may or may not have been a factor in this case, but the Japan Communist Party still writes: “War only kills innocent people and creates hatred. It is not a means by which terrorism can be eliminated. To bring peace to Afghanistan and to protect the security of NGO staff putting themselves on the line out there, we demand methods other than military force such as political and diplomatic solutions.”

The government continues to insist that they will re-extend the MSDF mission in the Indian Ocean. In meetings with foreign leaders, they pledge that they will push forward. However, it is still not clear if they can back that pledge. It has now been announced that an extraordinary Diet session will start September 12th and last for only seventy days. In the absence of an extension of the session, almost every analyst is pointing out that it should prove impossible to force through the MSDF mission reauthorization. From what we hear, New Komeito remains opposed to a second use of the lower house supermajority. Does the government really think they can still do this, or are they just putting on a show for foreign (i.e. Washington’s) consumption?

Japan's International Cooperation at a Crossroads: Aid Worker's Death May Prompt Government to Advise NGOs to Leave Afghanistan
By Hiroaki Matsunaga
Yomiuri Shinbun

In carrying out its international cooperation activities, Japan faces the difficult question of how it should engage in the international community's war against terrorism in the wake of the killing of a Japanese nongovernmental organization worker in Afghanistan. The incident in Afghanistan, observers point out, inevitably will affect discussions on a bill to extend the new Antiterrorism Law, which is expected to be the biggest issue in the next extraordinary Diet session. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda expressed his determination to continue engaging in the war against terrorism in his e-mail magazine sent out Thursday. "Right now, conflicts are taking place in various regions in the world, and many people are suffering poverty and other forms of hardship," Fukuda said in the e-mail magazine. "We'll be able to carry on the mission of [Kazuya] Ito [who was killed in Afghanistan] by giving a helping hand to such regions and people. That's the role Japan plays as a nation that engages in international cooperation activities."

The Self-Defense Forces have not been dispatched to Afghanistan in consideration of the worsening security situation there. In a sense, Japanese nongovernmental organizations and other private aid groups have taken the place of the SDF. According to the Foreign Ministry, eight Japanese NGOs are working in Afghanistan. "Twenty to thirty Japanese members of these groups go in and out of Afghanistan," an official of the ministry's Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau said. Thirty-nine Japanese officials of the Japan International Cooperation Agency also provide agricultural education and other forms of educational aid in Afghanistan. However, such people, unlike SDF members, do not carry arms to protect themselves.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said the government would consider asking Japanese aid workers to leave Afghanistan. "There may be limits to measures and efforts we can make to ensure their safety," Machimura said at a press conference Wednesday. But a government official pointed out, "If these aid group members leave Afghanistan, Japan's presence in international cooperation activities would be even weaker."

Currently, about 53,000 soldiers from forty countries participate in the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Of these, the United States, Britain and twelve other countries lead activities of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams in cooperation with NGOs. Among the Group of Eight nations, Japan and Russia are the only countries that have not dispatched military personnel to the country. As the security situation there worsens, the number of ISAF members killed has increased. However, three of the forty countries joined the ISAF during the past year, dispatching a total of 16,050 service members.

Refueling Less Controversial?

The main SDF contribution is the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean. The government and the ruling bloc have emphasized the merits of the refueling mission. "It's safer and cheaper than sending troops to Afghanistan," a senior Foreign Ministry official said.

The new Antiterrorism Law expires on Jan. 15. Fukuda is set to present a bill to revise the law to extend the SDF mission there during the extraordinary Diet session. The prime minister wants to have the bill passed during the session. Observers say the worsening security situation in Afghanistan, which resulted in the killing of a Japanese, may help enhance the public's understanding of the need to extend the refueling mission. "We'll play right into terrorists' hands if we're scared off from the war on terrorism. We need to show a determination not to yield to terrorism," former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Wednesday. "The refueling mission is a very safe mission, and [Ito's death] won't affect it."

The Liberal Democratic Party, which wants to extend the SDF mission, is expected to call on the opposition parties to discuss the matter together. However, Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa, who calls the mission "unconstitutional," does not appear willing to accept such an offer from the ruling bloc. Some DPJ members have started to seek alternative measures to engage in the war on terrorism in the wake of the incident in Afghanistan. "The higher the possibility is for the DPJ to take the helm of government, the more we need to come up with concrete and viable policies concerning international cooperation," DPJ Deputy President Seiji Maehara said Wednesday at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Yurakucho, Tokyo. "The security situation in Afghanistan is worsening, and the DPJ must change its policies [on support for the country]." Maehara said a dispatch of the Air Self-Defense Force to Afghanistan should be considered. "I think we can move the transport mission of the ASDF in Iraq to Afghanistan and consequently have the SDF withdraw from Iraq," Maehara said.

Ito’s Senseless Slaying
Asahi Shinbun

Japanese aid worker Kazuya Ito, kidnapped in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday by armed insurgents, was apparently killed by his captors during a gunbattle with police trying to rescue him. His body was found Wednesday.

For his family and colleagues, who were praying for his safe return, the tragic news is a worst-case scenario. The goodwill of this young Japanese man who went out of his way to provide civilian aid for people in a war-torn nation was shattered in a burst of gunfire.

Ito arrived in Afghanistan five years ago as a member of the nongovernmental organization Peshawar-kai. Since then, he had devoted himself to growing crops, mainly sweet potato and rice, and helping to build irrigation systems. Seeing local residents watch the progress of work to dig an irrigation canal under a blazing sun close to 50 degrees, Ito wrote in the group's newsletter: "I think even little children are awaiting the arrival of water."

We are outraged that Ito's goodwill cost him his life. NGOs devoted to humanitarian relief in conflict areas try to maintain neutrality from all armed groups. Then why was he attacked?

Peshawar-kai was established in Pakistan by Tetsu Nakamura, a doctor. It has been active in Afghanistan since the 1980s, focusing on providing medical and agricultural assistance. It had been operating there well before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Ito studied the local language and wore the same style of clothing as local residents. He must have identified with them.

Work in conflict areas means putting one's life at risk. That is all the more reason that NGOs engaged in civilian aid carefully study the local situation and security risks and build a relationship of trust with local residents. In that sense, since Peshawar-kai has a long track record in this arena, the incident drove home that there is no such thing as absolute safety.

In order to recover Ito and his driver, we heard that many villagers took part in the search. It illustrates he had won their deep trust and friendship.

This incident reminded us of former University of Tsukuba associate professor Yutaka Akino, who was gunned down in July 1998 while working for the U.N. Mission of Observers to settle a conflict in Tajikistan. Fifteen years ago, Atsuhito Nakata, a U.N. volunteer dispatched to Cambodia to monitor an election, was also murdered. What these people shared in common was passion and an aspiration to provide humanitarian relief for people suffering from war. They represent a precious asset for this country and an avenue for peaceful international contributions that do not rely on military power.

The security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated sharply amid an armed offensive by the Taliban, which fell from power seven years ago. The Taliban are responsible for numerous casualties, not only among members of the International Security Assistance Force but also those of NGOs from various countries.

In addition to Peshawar-kai, nearly ten Japanese NGOs and the Japan International Cooperation Agency are active in Afghanistan. In order to stay active, it may become unavoidable to temporarily withdraw all such personnel from unstable regions. As a nation, we must overcome our grief and continue to do our best to stay active. That is the way to carry on with what Ito and others set out to do.