[Kabar-indonesia] AT: Japan Plays Peacemaker in the Philippines [+Ends Milestone Iraq Mission]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: Philippines to charge victims of communist rebel extortion;
and Japan ends milestone Iraq military mission

Asia Times
Friday, June 23, 2006

Japan Plays Peacemaker in the Philippines

By David Adam Stott 

Once a foreign occupier and now a major donor and investor, Japan is 
currently pursuing a whole new role in Southeast Asia: peacemaker. Tokyo recently put 
itself in the mediating middle of the ongoing conflict between the Manila 
government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels on Mindanao, the 
second-largest island in the Philippines. 

At stake is the prospective Bangsamoro Juridical Entity, which if fully 
implemented would allow for enhanced self-rule and a governing role for the MILF in 
the troubled region. Bangsamoro refers to "Muslim Nation" in the local 
vernacular, and it is worth noting that Islam predates the arrival of Christianity 
in the Philippines by a few centuries. 

Philippine Muslims - most of whom are Sunni - have proudly reclaimed "Moro", 
formerly a derogatory term used by the colonial Spanish, as a label for their 
national identity. The Moros mostly live in Mindanao and the neighboring Sulu 
Archipelago, and Muslim insurgents from the Moro National Liberation Front 
(MNLF) have since 1968 resisted the Philippine central government in an armed 
struggle. 

The 1996 signing of the optimistically named Final Peace Agreement (FPA) 
between the MNLF and the government splintered the rebel movement, and the 
struggle has since been carried on by the MILF, a more overtly Islamic breakaway 
faction with an estimated 12,000 armed fighters. In recent weeks, Japanese 
officials have held meetings with the MILF with the aim of forging a permanent peace 
deal. 

Further complicating the situation is the presence of another armed 
separatist group, the Abu Sayyaf, which has largely morphed into a criminal 
organization specializing in kidnapping and demanding ransom both from foreigners and 
from locals. The United States has included the Abu Sayyaf on its list of 
international terrorist organizations, and Japanese nationals have been among the 
group's victims. 

The southern Philippines' Muslim rebellion has been one of the most 
protracted and brutal in modern Asian history. It is estimated that from 1970 to the 
present, the conflict has resulted in more than 150,000 battle-related deaths. 
Between 2000 and 2003, it is estimated that about 1.5 million civilians were 
displaced by government military offensives and MILF counter-offensives. For the 
past three years a ceasefire has been in place, and the casualty rate has 
thus dropped dramatically. 

Representatives of the MILF met with at least two Japanese diplomats on May 7 
in a MILF satellite office in Simuay, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao. The 
diplomats reportedly proposed that Japan join the International Monitoring Team, led 
by Malaysia and assisted by Brunei and Libya, to police the ceasefire while 
peace talks are held in Kuala Lumpur. Ghadzali Jaafar, the MILF's vice chair 
for political affairs, was quoted as saying, "We are very grateful to the 
Japanese government for [its] great concern in ensuring the peace and stability of 
our homeland and in Mindanao." 

Inaugurated in 1990, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) consists 
of five provinces and one city: Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, and Marawi City 
on Mindanao itself, and Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi in the Sulu Archipelago. 
The western and central Mindanao regions have significant Muslim populations, 
while the eastern part of the island is predominantly Christian. Armed conflict 
has been concentrated in the ARMM and the Zamboanga Peninsula. 

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has urged foreign donors to pour 
more development aid into Mindanao to help cement the tentative peace. The 
ARMM received no local or foreign equity investment in the period spanning 
1994-200l, and its gross regional domestic product (GRDP) is by far the lowest of 
Mindanao's six already poor regions. In per capita terms, the ARMM's output is 
only two-thirds that of the next-poorest region, Caraga in northeastern 
Mindanao, and less than one-third that of the northern Mindanao region, the island's 
leading performer. 

Against that dire backdrop, Manila reached out to Tokyo, a longtime major 
donor of official development assistance. In 1989, Tokyo launched the Grant 
Assistance for Grassroots Projects in the Philippines to alleviate poverty and help 
various communities engage in grassroots economic activities. Since then, 
more than 300 small-scale projects have been implemented across the country. As 
of this February, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) had 
dispatched a total of 77 staff members, 26 long-term experts and 60 volunteers 
throughout the Philippine archipelago. 

Tokyo unveiled its 44 billion yen (US$383 million at the current exchange 
rate) Support Package for Peace and Stability in Mindanao during Arroyo's state 
visit in late 2002. Since then, Tokyo has funded many humanitarian projects in 
areas as far-flung as the Tawi-Tawi and Basilan Islands - both Abu Sayyaf 
strongholds, where some Japanese nationals have recently been killed. Japan 
assured Manila this year that it would continue its humanitarian projects in 
Mindanao despite growing concerns about the safety of its citizens and aid workers 
there. 

Mediating motivations

Japan has long sought a political profile commensurate with its economic 
weight in Southeast Asia. Tokyo has previously attempted to play a mediatory role 
in civil conflicts in Myanmar, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia's Aceh 
province, Afghanistan and, most recently, Sri Lanka. In May, Japanese envoy Yasushi 
Akashi held meetings with both sides of Sri Lanka's protracted dispute, which is 
on the verge of tipping back toward civil war as the most recent ceasefire 
breaks down. 

There are various dynamics at play behind Japan's Asian peace drive. Analysts 
note that the policy can be traced back to the first Gulf War in 1991, when 
Japan was widely criticized for conducting so-called "checkbook diplomacy" 
where it committed funds but not personnel. At the same time, Japan seems to be 
responding to domestic calls to both develop an imaginative foreign policy 
distinct from its relationship with Washington and to play a greater leadership 
role in Asia. 

The latter policy has been spurred by the resurgence of China. Tokyo plainly 
realizes that Beijing represents a growing threat to its "natural" leadership 
role, particularly in Southeast Asia and more generally in the Asia-Pacific 
region as a whole. Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) still vastly 
outweighs that of any other country, and Tokyo has historically been more 
determined than most to get good value for its money by ensuring that Japanese 
companies are often awarded related contracts. 

At the same time, a succession of scandals has recently rocked Japan's 
Foreign Ministry and given the public cause to question Tokyo's ODA distribution, 
especially after a decade of stagnant economic growth at home. Using ODA for 
high-profile peace initiatives in conflict-ridden Southeast Asia thus bolsters 
the ministry's otherwise sagging reputation and fends off calls for further cuts 
in its budget. Meanwhile, Japan's "Peace Constitution" still draws widespread 
support among the general public and the Foreign Ministry's peace initiatives 
plainly appeal to this constituency. 

In recent years there have been unsubstantiated reports of the MILF's links 
with global terror group al-Qaeda, and more recently with the Southeast Asian 
transnational terror network Jemaah Islamiyah. By engaging with the MILF, Japan 
is probably hoping that it will gently help the Philippines battle against 
terrorism, but also improve its image in the eyes of the region's Muslims. 

For its part, the MILF denies any direct role in terrorism and often contends 
that any terrorist activity attributed to it is the handiwork of its alleged 
"lost commands". Nevertheless, evidence continues to surface that its jungle 
camps in Mindanao are home to some Jemaah Islamiyah trainees and operatives 
from around Southeast Asia. 

Importantly, there is also a potential commercial element to Japan's 
Philippine peace initiative. Mindanao is the second-largest island in the Philippines 
and is considered by many Filipinos a land of opportunity. The island contains 
48% of the nation's gold production, 63% of its nickel and 18% of its 
charcoal reserves. Mindanao dominates most of the country's major commodity crops, 
such as rubber, pineapple, cacao, banana, coffee, corn and coconut, contributing 
anywhere between 60% to 100% of total output. Despite large-scale 
deforestation, the island still boasts nearly 39% of the nation's forest cover and 
currently supplies about 90% of the Philippines' total timber production. 

Japan has historical roots in the region. Japanese emigration to the 
Philippines dates back to 1903, where Davao, Mindanao's largest city, was known as 
"Little Tokyo". Then, Japanese management and leadership of the local hemp 
industry made the Davao area economy thrive and turned abaca into a major Philippine 
export commodity. So important was the island to Japanese trade that 
apparently a trade map in the Japanese consulate in Davao labeled Mindanao - along 
with Korea and Formosa - as domestic territories, according to a source familiar 
with the matter. 

Now, Mindanao is obviously attractive to Japan because it holds a significant 
portion of the Philippines' unexploited oil and natural-gas deposits, much of 
which rest in Muslim-majority territories, especially within former 
MILF-controlled areas. In 2000, the Philippine government began implementing the 
Liguasan Marsh Development Project to extract natural gas in marshland occupied by 
Moro communities claimed and largely controlled by the MILF. The Muslim 
strongholds in Maguindanao, North and South Cotabato, Basilan and the Sulu Islands 
are also believed to contain various untapped natural resources. With the 
ever-increasing global competition for resources, in particular with China, Tokyo 
surely recognizes the importance of any goodwill it can build with the future 
gatekeepers to such sought-after commodities. 

Complicating the conflict resolution picture are the at least 13 different 
ethno-linguistic Muslim groups indigenous to Mindanao, of which three 
predominate politically and in numbers: the Maguindanao-Iranun in the Cotabato region, 
the Maranaws of the Lanao region, and the Tausug-Samal group of the Sulu 
Archipelago. There are also an increasing number of Islamic converts across the 
island, many of whom married into the faith. Such tribal divisions are significant 
because these ethno-linguistic distinctions have formed the core of the three 
main rebel groups, with the Tausug dominating the MNLF, the Tausug and Yakan 
the top recruits to the Abu Sayyaf, and the Maguindanao making up the largest 
part of the MILF. 

Conflicted ethnic mosaic

Early in the struggle, the MNLF placed great emphasis on constructing a 
shared cultural-historical identity that transcended differences among these 13 
different Muslim ethno-linguistic groups. As such, the term "Bangsamoro" was 
created to imply a shared heritage and then overrode the occasional call for 
Islamic renewal and jihad. At the same time, the MNLF was keen to stress continuity 
with the Moro sultanates, which had some modern state features prior to their 
absorption into the Philippine colonial state before World War II. 

Meanwhile, the MILF has recently gone to great lengths to accentuate its 
stronger commitment to Islamic ideals in contrast to the largely secular posture 
of the MNLF. That religious stance has allegedly attracted financial support 
for the MILF from such groups as al-Qaeda. 

Nevertheless, the underlying Islamic nature of both the MNLF and the MILF is 
subordinate to the cause of defending Moro territory and traditions, both as a 
response to perceived Christian chauvinism and as a desire to strengthen 
social and political connections between Philippine Muslims and the wider Islamic 
world. These connections, facilitated by rebels and local ulama, or Islamic 
scholars, have resulted in an influx of funds from governments, private 
organizations and wealthy individuals in the Middle East for building mosques and 
Islamic schools throughout Mindanao. In turn, this has helped foster an Islamic 
consciousness and, through front organizations, the MILF promotes Islamic 
religious and cultural values that have increased its own local legitimacy and 
popular support and hence contributed to its ability to sustain armed conflict. 

So does poverty. A two-tier Mindanao is clearly emerging, in which the Muslim 
areas in the west lag noticeably behind the predominantly Christian eastern 
areas. Using the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Index 
as a benchmark, the quality of life in Muslim Mindanao is significantly below 
both the national level and the Christian-majority provinces of Mindanao. These 
same areas have also had the least access to potable water and electricity. 

Given that Mindanao's Muslim-majority areas suffer from a plethora of social, 
economic, institutional, demographic, geographic and governance problems, 
Japan will quickly find that ending the cycle of violence will not come easily. 
Insufficient levels of government spending, a lack of infrastructure, abysmally 
low levels of foreign and local investment, and clan rivalries among rebel 
and government forces represent just the tip of the iceberg. 

The most pressing practical problem to the peace process now is the lack of 
agreement on which areas in southern Mindanao should be declared Muslim 
ancestral domains, a disagreement that is clearly tied to control over natural 
resources. Entrenched personal and corporate interests from Christian landowning 
families in Mindanao and Manila will likely oppose any major government 
concessions to Moros, and overcoming these obstacles will be a formidable task given 
the Philippines' deserved reputation for corruption and oligarchism. 

For all Tokyo's good and commercial intentions, it will take more than 
goodwill to solve the Philippines' entrenched and costly conflict. 

David Adam Stott is a lecturer at the University of Kitakyushu in southern 
Japan, where he teaches international relations and researches the political 
economy of conflict in Southeast Asia. 

--------------------------------------------

Agence France-Presse
June 22, 2006

Philippines to charge victims of communist rebel extortion

Philippine communities which harbor Maoist insurgents and businesses that 
submit to guerrilla extortion face criminal charges as part of a crackdown 
against the rebellion, officials said. 

President Gloria Arroyo's chief aide warned local officials and families 
against giving sanctuary to the Communist Party of the Philippines and its 
7,400-member New People's Army which has been waging a 37-year guerrilla campaign.

"Anyone who abets the insurgency, anyone who gives comfort to the enemy will 
be within the ambit of the counter-insurgency operations," Executive Secretary 
Eduardo Ermita told a news conference.

The NPA rebels "live off the land and they depend on the assistance provided 
to them by their coddlers on the ground. So we have to address these 
particular coddlers," he said.

Companies that paid "revolutionary taxes" could be charged even if rebels 
armed with guns forced their staff to hand over the money.

"Because they are giving aid and comfort to the enemy, they will be 
appropriately charged," he said.

Military officials say the insurgency's operational funds are raised mainly 
through extortion of businesses and politicians. Those who refuse to pay often 
find their buildings attacked and equipment burned. Rebels also sometimes 
resort to murder, the officials say.

Arroyo meanwhile said sizeable military units would be detailed to guard 
business in rebel-influenced areas to help them resist guerrilla extortion.

"In my provincial visits I have heard a lot about revolutionary taxation. 
Many businessmen are complaining that they don't want to pay but they have no 
other choice," she said in send-off remarks to three army battalions that have 
been pulled out of the southern Philippines.

The 1,500 soldiers would redeploy in the provinces south of Manila, one of 
three key areas that would be the focus of stepped up military operations and 
development aid over the next two years.

"We will deploy battalions and companies in areas that are heavily taxed by 
the rebels," Arroyo told the troops.

Ermita said the rebels hold sway in a number of villages "where our social 
workers, our health workers, our department of agriculture people cannot even 
enter". Local officials there are suspected of supporting the CPP-NPA, he said.

"We can convert them (rebel-leaning villages) into peace-loving citizens 
through our civil-military operations," he added.

--------------------------------------------

Agence France-Presse
June 20, 2006

Japan ends milestone Iraq military mission
 
Japan ordered its 600 troops to leave Iraq, ending its first military mission 
since World War II to a country where fighting is under way.

The pullout brings closure to one of the signature but domestically unpopular 
policies of outgoing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, which was seen as a 
way to exert Japanese influence beyond that of an economic power.

"After closely consulting with the United States, the multinational forces, 
Britain and Australia, I made the decision because I judged that the 
humanitarian mission has completed a certain achievement in the region," Koizumi, who 
steps down in September, told a news conference.

The troops were given immediate orders to arrange for their withdrawal, 
defense chief Fukushiro Nukaga said. Media reports said the last troops were 
expected to return by late July.

But Nukaga said the Japanese air force would remain active in Iraq, 
transporting goods and personnel to Baghdad for the US-led coalition.

The troop mission, which has helped reconstruct the relatively peaceful area 
around the southern city of Samawa since January 2004, is the first of its 
kind since Japan was forced by the United States to renounce war after World War 
II.

Due to its 1947 constitution, Japan relies on British and Australian troops 
for protection in Iraq as its own troops are barred from using force.

The troops have suffered no casualties and never even fired their 
state-of-the-art weapons.

But the military mission has still been criticized by China, which is haunted 
by Japan's past aggression, and opposed by a majority of the public in 
opinion polls.

Koizumi's government has broken other post-war taboos. It has proposed a 
revision of the constitution to recognize that Japan has a military, and not the 
euphemistically named Self-Defense Forces.

"Including this deployment, the activities of the Self-Defense Forces around 
the world have helped improve Japan's brand image," Foreign Minister Taro Aso 
said.

Iraqi troops will next month take over security from the coalition in 
Muthanna province which includes Samawa -- the first such transfer of power since the 
US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's dictatorship.

Analysts said it was no coincidence Japan was exiting now, as the troops 
could expect a riskier mission without Western forces around them.

"The government has been extremely worried about casualties during the 
deployment, so it must be truly relieved to withdraw now," said Hideo Otake, 
professor of politics at Kyoto University.

Koizumi, who visits the United States next week on a farewell tour, strongly 
backed President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq and has bolstered 
cooperation with Washington since becoming premier in April 2001.

He defended his stance Tuesday.

"We are engaged in international cooperation keeping the importance of the 
Japan-US alliance in mind, we are engaged in international cooperation. This is 
our important policy now and in the future," Koizumi said.

The withdrawal supports Japan's stance that its involvement was only for 
reconstruction, as it is leaving declaring the goal accomplished, said Takehiko 
Yamamoto, professor of international politics at Waseda University in Tokyo.

"But it is also important in that it made another case for the troops' 
activities outside the framework of self-defense," he said.

Despite its growing military role, Japan has still used aid as a top 
instrument of foreign policy, pledging five billion dollars in grants and loans to 
rebuild Iraq.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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