ID :
33796
Wed, 12/03/2008 - 21:01
Auther :

FOCUS: Japan joins Oslo ban to show peace efforts, security concerns linger

TOKYO, Dec. 3 Kyodo - Japan's signing of a landmark ban on cluster bombs in Oslo on Wednesday
reflected Tokyo's hopes of further highlighting its efforts in humanitarian
assistance and peace building but aroused concern among the country's defense
community that national security capabilities could be undermined.
''All those Japanese peace-building efforts should be perceived as a kind of a
package. Now the cluster bomb issue is joining in this league of Japan's
(contributions to international) cooperation,'' Foreign Ministry Deputy Press
Secretary Yasuhisa Kawamura told Kyodo News.
Tokyo was not an avid supporter of the accord for an immediate ban on the use
of all cluster munitions when Norway initiated the so-called ''Oslo Process''
in February 2007 as a separate track from the stalled negotiations under the
Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons framework.
A close ally of the United States, one of the major producers of cluster bombs,
which has shunned the Oslo Process, Japan did not support the Oslo declaration
in February 2007. Tokyo had called for talks to be focused instead under the
CCW track and advocated only a partial ban.
However, after an apparent political decision by then Prime Minister Yasuo
Fukuda, who advocates Japan as a ''peace-fostering nation,'' Tokyo shifted its
stance at the Dublin conference in May and decided to join the Oslo accord.
In addressing his counterparts at the signing ceremony for the Convention on
Cluster Munitions in the Norwegian capital on Wednesday, Foreign Minister
Hirofumi Nakasone clearly placed emphasis on Japan's pledge to step up
contributions such as assisting in the disposal of unexploded duds and
supporting victims.
Japan also hopes that by being a signatory of the Oslo accord, it will be in a
better position to play a role in convincing major military powers like the
United States, China and Russia to join the ban.
Stressing that the ''political and humanitarian benefits'' of banning cluster
bombs far exceed the financial cost required for disposing and replacing them,
Kawamura said, ''We will explain the meaning and significance of the treaty and
hope that more countries will join us for the efforts.''
Some defense experts have welcomed Japan's change of heart on cluster bombs,
noting that the abolition could accelerate modernization of the Self-Defense
Forces' weaponry.
The SDF currently has four kinds of cluster bombs -- ground-launched rockets
and projectiles possessed by the Ground Self-Defense Force, and two types of
aerial-launched rockets possessed by the GSDF and the Air Self-Defense Force.
All are non-guided ''dumb'' bombs designed to indiscriminately inflict damage
on adversaries coming ashore.
In an effort to ''supplement'' the purpose that cluster munitions have served,
the Defense Ministry has requested roughly 7.3 billion yen in the budget for
the fiscal year starting April to acquire two kinds of single-warhead bombs.
Many in the GSDF, however, have expressed concern that the move will create an
instant ''hole'' in the nation's defense, which has relied on cluster bombs to
defend coastlines.
The two weapons -- precision-guided M31 rockets for ground-based mobile
launchers and laser-guided Joint Direct Attack Munitions for fighter jets --
are smarter and less indiscriminate than cluster bombs.
But because they can only hit single, fairly large targets such as vessels and
are thus unsuited for use against enemy combatants, defense officials say
neither weapon will fully supplant the outgoing cluster munitions.
Furthermore, Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada recently vowed that Japan will
not even acquire newer models that are not banned by the accord -- models
containing fewer bomblets that are less prone to becoming duds.
The remark has unnerved GSDF personnel, who are responsible for the nation's
land-based defense, but a senior Defense Ministry official admits that
deploying newer cluster models would be difficult for Japan anyway.
''Even we know where the big currents are flowing in society,'' he said,
pointing to an emerging worldwide trend to ''shame'' those deploying and using
cluster bombs of all kinds.
Defense officials say the task ahead is to develop a new defense strategy in a
fast-changing environment, which presents a relatively small risk of invasion
by sea.
''It is necessary to consider a requisite equipment system from a middle- to
long-term point of view, given the recent changes in war strategies and the
trends in the rapidly developing military technology,'' Hamada told a press
conference last week.
The Defense Ministry plans to carefully study these points to compile a new
midterm defense buildup program by the end of the next fiscal year.
''We will begin discussing in January or sooner. I don't believe it will take a
long time'' to devise a new program that will take the disuse of cluster bombs
into account, the same senior ministry official said.
Still, some critics questioned the significance of Japan's participation in the
treaty if its military ally the United States refuses to recognize the ban.
Washington's stance was made clear by U.S. State Department Deputy spokesman
Robert Wood on Tuesday, who said the United States will not be signing the
treaty as ''we still believe that these weapons are necessary...in terms of
conducting our warfare.''
While prohibiting signatory states from using, producing and stockpiling
cluster munitions and assisting others in such activities, the Oslo accord
allows state parties to engage in military cooperation and operations with
those not party to the convention.
As a result, a Foreign Ministry official familiar with the disarmament
negotiations acknowledged that ''theoretically speaking'' the convention does
not prohibit a non-signatory state, such as the United States, from using
cluster bombs to defend a signatory state with which it has a security
alliance, such as Japan.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said that as many major
stockpilers of cluster bomb such as the United States, China, Russia and India
have yet to join the Oslo process, Japan and others must continue efforts to
realize a legally binding instrument under the CCW framework involving those
military powers.
''I'd say it (the Oslo accord) will be effective. On the other hand, it is not
enough,'' the official said.
==Kyodo

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