9 - Japan's Roles in Cambodia: Peace-Making, Peace-Building and National Reconciliation

Summary

Japan's various roles in the past decades in Cambodia may be underestimated and underreported, as Japan remains relatively low-profile and quiet about its activities. Stated briefly, Japan's roles in Cambodia include the following:

1. • Peace-Building: through its efforts in UNTAC

2. • Peace-Making: through its roles in organizing the Tokyo Informal meetings; reaching out to the Heng Samrin regime; and its participation in the 1991 Paris Peace Conference on Cambodia;

3. • National Reconciliation: Through its efforts to achieve reconciliation between Hun Sen and Prince Ranariddh in the July 1997 power struggle.

JAPAN'S PEACE BUILDING EFFORTS IN CAMBODIA

Peace-building efforts in Cambodia were Japan's first foray in this area, and also served as a model for Japanese efforts to address other domestic conflicts in various parts of Asia. It was in Cambodia that Japan gained valuable experience, national self-confidence and institutional knowledge in the whole range of inter-related areas of peace-building: diplomatic negotiations to achieve a peace agreement; operationalising the peace agreement through the dispatch of Japanese personnel (including sending Self Defence Forces personnel abroad for the first time since WW2) to support UNTAC; the provision of funds and personnel for socio-economic reconstruction in Cambodia; and critical mediation in the July 1997 crisis caused by a power struggle between Cambodian factions. Three key components of Japanese peace-building efforts were: ODA; Japanese diplomacy, and unprecedented participation in UN peace-keeping operations. Cambodia also saw the first instance of Japanese pro-active diplomacy in the 1990s. According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Cambodia was the first full-scale peace-building assistance program undertaken by Japan.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry considered the Cambodian experience to be successful in three aspects, namely:

1. • Firstly, Japan showed tenacity, patience and determination from 1978 to 1991, to help address the Cambodia conflict, which was the greatest challenge facing Southeast Asia, and contributed greatly to the implementation of the political solution via the 1991 Paris Peace Conference and UNTAC;

2. • Secondly, tackling the Cambodian conflict successfully was a demonstration of how the Fukuda doctrine should operate, as it envisaged an active Japanese role in bridging the gap between the non-Communist ASEAN member states, and the Indochinese states, and thus promoting regional peace, stability and prosperity.