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Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 13:12:59 EST
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Subject: [wa-afr] [unioNews] Japanese Promise Rigorous Pursuit of African
Issues
Thema: [unioNews] Japanese Promise Rigorous Pursuit of African Issues
Datum: 16.02.01 19:07:00 (MEZ) Mitteleuropäische Zeit
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Japanese Promise Rigorous Pursuit of African Issues
Japan's ambassador to the UN, Kiyo Akasaka Thursday said his country intends
to vigorously pursue issues that are of pressing importance to Africa within
the context of ensuring human security.
Akasaka said Japan is currently in the process of developing a more focused
and coordinated policy toward Africa.
As a follow-up to the visit of the Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshiro Mori to
Africa in January, a Japanese official team will soon be going to the
continent to explore specific ways to address issues of interest to the
region, he announced.
"We intend to spend more energy and resources on Africa," he said, explaining
further that the general context of Japan's approach will be the promotion of
human security, a concept that aims at tackling the problems of human
suffering and insecurity.
Among the issues that Japan intends to address are the problem of refugees,
infectious diseases, poverty, the environment, international crime and drugs.
Akasaka said Japan had in 1999 established a Trust Fund for Human Security to
address some of these problems.
The Fund, he said, will grow to 200 million dollars this year.
In addition, he said Japan has initiated a World Commission on Human Security
to be co-chaired by the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako
Ogata.
The Commission's main goals would be to promote international acceptance of
the imperative of human security; develop the concept of human security as a
practical tool of foreign policy design and implementation, and identify the
critical and pervasive threats to human security and propose programmes to
deal with them.
The ambassador said Japan is already devoting a lot of resources to areas
that matter to Africa such as HIV/AIDS, foreign aid and conflict prevention.
Japan, he said, has pledged to spend three billion dollars over the next five
years on HIV/AIDS, Malaria and tuberculosis. Most of the money is expected to
go to Africa where those diseases are most pronounced, he said.
The ambassador explained that the funds would be disbursed through the UN,
NGOs and through bilateral channels.
He also stressed that Japan has been doing a lot in the area of official
development assistance.
Saying Japan has been spending 10 billion dollars yearly in foreign aid, the
ambassador said other countries also needed to be generous in offering aid to
developing countries.
While most countries usually tie their aid to their such considerations as
its economic and political interests, Akasaka said Japan's aid to Africa is
based on the continent's need.
The Japanese envoy said his country's approach is to address conflict
prevention and support the resolution of conflicts and providing for refugees.
Among Japan's efforts in this regard has been the organisation of seminars on
conflict prevention and the offering of assistance to African efforts to
address its conflicts, such as those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Rwanda and Burundi.
He, however, ruled out the involvement of Japanese troops in peacekeeping,
even though the country pays 20 percent of the UN peacekeeping budget, which
amounted to 2.5 billion dollars in 2000 and is expected to grow to three
billion dolars this year.
Japan's post-war policy had forbidden the use of its troops out of the
country.
PanAfrican News Agency * February 15, 2001 * Jerome Hule * New York / UN
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