Newsletter No. 1015
News-Analysis
May 16, 2008

 

TOKYO TO DISPATCH FACTFINDING TEAM TO SOUTHERN SUDAN

A decision on the 13th may mark the first practical step toward the dispatch of the SDF to southern Sudan. In a meeting between Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, and Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, a decision was reached that a twenty-member factfinding team consisting of officials from the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry, the GSDF, and the Secretariat of the Cabinet Office's International Peace Cooperation Headquarters would be sent to southern Sudan, perhaps in June. The details are now being ironed out.

We know that the idea of a GSDF deployment to Sudan has been in gestation for quite a while. The UN and some countries have requested Japanese involvement in the past. The government in Khartoum has signaled that they would welcome it. Indeed, as recently as the 7th a Sudanese government official repeated that the GSDF would be welcome as far as they were concerned.

The Defense Ministry, however, has been cautious about this one. Reports say that they are not convinced that the environment in southern Sudan is safe for Japanese troops, and they are clearly wary of this particular mission. On the other hand, we have long been told that Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura and MOFA have been pushing behind the scenes for the GSDF to be sent. It seems rather obvious that the sending of this factfinding team is something of a compromise: By going out there to see for themselves, the various ministries can better judge the real degree of risk inherent in the prospective mission. The Yomiuri says that it was just decided today that three or four senior GSDF staff officers will join the factfinding team.

ONODERA’S MISSION TO SUDAN

From May 3rd to the 5th MOFA Vice-Minister Itsunori Onodera also made a visit to Sudan. Onodera’s mission seems to have focused more on Darfur than the southern Sudan issue. Indeed, he became the first senior Japanese official to make an actual, direct inspection of the Darfur region, which he did on the 4th. There he met with various international aid officials and saw for himself the living conditions of refugees in a large camp. In Khartoum he met with various Sudanese government officials including Nafie Ali Nafie (who visited Tokyo in March), as well as officers of the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). No Japanese official of Onodera’s level had been in Khartoum since the mission of then-MOFA Vice-Minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki in early 2006.

STATEMENT ON DARFUR ATTACK

MOFA released the following statement on the recent audacious attack by the opposition Justice and Equality Movement on the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. They condemned the rebels but said nothing about the renewed tension between Sudan and Chad, which some people speculate played a key role in this affair.

Statement by Press Secretary on the Armed Attacks by Anti-Government Forces in Sudan
May 12, 2008

1. The Government of Japan condemns the armed attacks by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the anti-government forces of Darfur, which occurred in Omdurman, in the suburbs of the capital city Khartoum. Japan is especially concerned about the influence of these attacks on the Darfur peace process and stability in Sudan and the whole region.

2. Japan reiterates that it is impossible to solve the Darfur issue by armed force and that all the parties concerned should commit to a peaceful settlement of this issue. At the same time, Japan requests the international community including the neighboring countries to cooperate for the realization of the peaceful solution.