Hatoyama's Burma Test

Tokyo's policy toward the junta is ripe for review.

· By BENEDICT ROGERS AND YUKI AKIMOTO



Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will have much on his agenda in his first few months in office in Tokyo. One particular area crying out for change is Japan's relationship with Burma.



No country has a bigger historical responsibility to Burma than Japan. Aung San, leader of the Burmese struggle for independence from British colonialism in the late 1930s and 1940s, was given military training by the Japanese. In World War II, Japan occupied Burma and cruelly oppressed the ethnic groups who sided with the British. More recently, Aung San's daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, studied in Kyoto before returning to her country in 1988 to campaign for democracy. Yet Japan has extended political and financial support to Burma's military regime to protect its own short-term economic interests, safeguard relations with China and pursue a misguided view that appeasement will bear fruit.



This has tied Tokyo's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in moral and rhetorical knots. Officials defended the junta's sham referendum on a new constitution last year. One bureaucrat said with a straight face that the junta had introduced "due process" and that dissidents are put on trial before they are imprisoned. When 6,300 prisoners were released in February, Japan welcomed this as a "positive step"—even though most were ordinary criminals and only 30 were political prisoners.



Nor was Japan's previous government very forceful defending democracy in the face of elections due in 2010, even though Aung San Suu Kyi and other leading democrats will be excluded. "It's very difficult to know the meaning of 'free and fair,'" a foreign ministry official said earlier this year. Tokyo in May dismissed Ms. Suu Kyi's most recent trial as "a domestic issue." Last month, the former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hirofumi Nakasone, held talks with Htay Oo, secretary-general of the regime's civilian militia, the Union Solidarity and Development Association. The USDA organized an alleged assassination attempt on Ms. Suu Kyi in 2003.



If Mr. Hatoyama is serious about change, Tokyo's entire approach must change. The first step is to modify Tokyo's rhetoric about next year's "elections." Rather than support the junta, Tokyo could call for a genuine process of democratization and refuse to verify sham elections.



Japan also has many options for unilateral action. Japan is the largest donor to Burma in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Tokyo could end this financial flow, which ends up with the regime and its proxy organizations, and redirect that money to humanitarian aid administered through independent agencies. This would solve a major problem of Japanese aid subsidizing schemes such as scholarships for regime officials to study in Japan, or USDA-sponsored projects. Instead, Japanese aid in support of refugees, internally displaced peoples and human--rights and democracy projects should be increased. On the trade front, Japan could also ban the import of Burmese products such as natural gas, timber and gems. The Japanese government should also divest from Nippon Oil Exploration (Myanmar), which has stakes in natural gas development in Burma.



Then there are multilateral actions: Japan, the U.S. and Canada could work to impose targeted financial sanctions on the junta's leaders. Tokyo should begin by freezing any Japan-based bank accounts of the regime's top officials and their cronies that are already the target of such sanctions, as well as prohibiting any financial transactions involving these individuals or entities. As a member of the United Nations Security Council, Mr. Hatoyama's government also can play a more pro-active part in discussions on Burma. Japan has no arms trade, and so would have nothing to lose in leading a campaign for a universal arms embargo on the regime. Japan can also support a U.N. commission of inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity in Burma.



Mr. Hatoyama has been a long-time supporter of democracy in Burma. In 2007, just days after a Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai was shot dead at point-blank range in Rangoon as he filmed the Burmese military crushing the peaceful protests by Buddhist monks, Mr. Hatoyama posed a question to the then prime minister, saying: "The response by the Japanese government has been very slow. It is the Japanese government that should lead the international community, and demand now that the military regime control itself and release all those detained including Daw Suu Kyi, and make every effort so that democratization in [Burma] is realized." Now, he has the opportunity to pursue that approach.



Mr. Rogers is a human-rights activist at Christian Solidarity Worldwide, based in London. Ms. Akimoto is director of BurmaInfo, based in Tokyo.





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

Benedict Rogers

East Asia Team Leader

Christian Solidarity Worldwide UK

PO Box 99

New Malden

Surrey KT3 3YF

www.csw.org. uk

www.changeforburma. org

Direct dial: (+44) (0)208-329-0041

General line: (+44) (0)845 456 5464

Fax: (+44) (0) 208-942-8802

Christian Solidarity Worldwide is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.

Confidentiality: The information contained in this email and any attachments are confidential. It is intended for the named recipient(s) only. If you are not the named recipient please notify the sender immediately and do not disclose the contents to any other person other than the intended recipient.

Virus Checking: Whilst all reasonable steps have been taken to ensure that this communication is free from viruses, Christian Solidarity Worldwide accepts no liability in respect of any loss, cost, damage or expenses suffered as a result of accessing this message or any of its attachments.