Cambodia Flare-Up Holds a Test for Japan's Global Role
International Herald Tribune
February 17, 1993
Michael Richardson 

Japan's resolve to assume more international responsibilities will be severely tested if, as appears likely, fighting intensifies before elections scheduled for May in Cambodia, the first and so far only place where Japanese peacekeepers have been sent.

Asian officials are worried that a return to widespread conflict in Cambodia would force Tokyo to withdraw its peacekeeping troops, which are prohibited by law from operating in combat zones.

Such a move would be bound to cause strains with the United States, and it would set back Japanese ambitions for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Fears in Japan that the country's first peacekeeping contingent, of 600 army engineers, might become embroiled in fighting between Khmer Rouge guerrillas and the forces of the Phnom Penh government have increased in recent days.

Justifying attacks against the Khmer Rouge, Khieu Kanharith, a spokesman for the Phnom Penh authorities, said Tuesday that the rebels were intent on using violence to regain the power they lost following the Vietnamese invasion in 1978.

Despite their having signed the Cambodian peace agreement in Paris in 1991, the Khmer Rouge have refused to disarm or take part in the May elections, asserting that the United Nations has not done enough to remove Vietnamese influence from the country.

On Sunday, in a radio broadcast, the Khmer Rouge threatened a huge counterattack if forces of the Phnom Penh administration continued offensive operations.

Jusuf Wanandi, chairman of the supervisory board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, said that if the UN peacekeeping effort in Cambodia failed, public opinion in Japan "will turn against the idea of burden-sharing and against the United States for having forced" Tokyo to join UN security missions abroad.

As a result, he said, Japanese participation in "collective security activity under the United Nations or a U.S. alliance will be much more difficult to realize in future."

About 22,000 soldiers, police and civilians from a wide array of countries are in the UN force in Cambodia. It is the largest and most expensive peacekeeping operation ever undertaken by the United Nations.

Butros Butros Ghali, the UN secretary-general, who is in Tokyo this week for talks with Japanese leaders, proposed last year that UN peacekeeping activities be upgraded to "peace-enforcing operations," including military measures to deter acts of aggression and civil wars. Tokyo has given moral support for Mr. Butros Ghali's plan but has not declared a commitment because of strong pacifist opposition and a heated constitutional debate at home.

Some activists in the ruling governing Democratic Party, including Foreign Minister Michio Watanabe, say that Tokyo cannot hope to gain a permanent seat on the UN Security Council unless Japan's constitution is amended to make it lawful for Japanese troops to take part in all UN military missions.

Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and other politicians in both the governing party and the opposition reject the proposed revision, saying that it would resurrect Asian fears of Japanese military domination.

However, some Asian leaders believe that Japan needs to be drawn into a full security role under UN auspices to help maintain peace and stability in Asia and other parts of the world following the end of the Cold War.

Mahathir bin Mohamad, the Malaysian prime minister, said recently that if the United Nations was to be more effective, Japan "should shoulder the same burden as everybody else, and not just contribute money."

He said that should the situation turn "nasty, perhaps in Cambodia, you can't just send money and let somebody else fight."

"You have to be there. Everybody should have a share of the risks and dangers."

Under pressure from Washington, Japan agreed in June to send peacekeeping forces on UN missions. But legislation enacted by the Diet after months of bitter debate bars soldiers from operations in areas where a cease-fire accord is not in force or has been broken.

Earlier this month, the government rejected opposition demands that it prepare to recall the country's peacekeeping troops from Cambodia following the start of what the United Nations said was the largest military offensive against the Khmer Rouge by the Phnom Penh administration since the UN peacekeeping forces were deployed in March 1992.

Mr. Miyazawa tried to reassure critics by saying that Japan "must not be involved in any armed conflict with the exception of self-defense."

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