Condoleezza’s choices

There are inherent tensions in Bush’s new foreign
policy team writes Walter Andersen.

Quotes :

"The writer is associate director, South Asia Studies
Programme, School of Advanced International Studies,
Johns Hopkins University

George W. Bush was sworn in as president in 2001 with no
intention of focusing on foreign policy. The second
inauguration of George W. Bush on January 20 was quite
the reverse. In his inaugural speech, he laid out one of
the most expansive manifestos ever offered from an
inaugural platform as he dedicated his presidency to
spreading democracy and freedom. He portrayed the US as
a beacon for the subjugated and promised to
confront despots who enchain them. The catalyst for this
about-face in foreign policy, of course, was 9/11 and
the subsequent Global War on Terrorism.

It was the military activity in Afghanistan and then
Iraq that provided an opportunity for Secretary of
Defence Donald Rumsfeld to assume the dominant role in
the fight against terrorism, America’s major foreign
policy engagement. In this, he was ably assisted by Paul
Wolfowitz, his brilliant deputy secretary who is the
intellectual father of the notion of pre-emptive
military action that was employed against Saddam
Hussein, and by Douglas Feith, the under secretary of
defence policy. Vice President Richard Cheney’s support
for Rumsfeld guaranteed the victory of Rumsfeld and the
Department of Defence against the Department of State
headed by Colin Powell, in the bureaucratic battle for
control of Iraq policy. The Defence Department’s
preeminence was revealed when it asserted control over
the postwar reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

The botched reconstruction efforts, the emergence of
Iraq as a centre of terrorist activity and the
continuous killing of American soldiers in Iraq have not
been held against Rumsfeld and his team. Not only was he
asked to continue in office soon after Bush’s November 2
victory. his chief deputies, Wolfowitz and Feith, appear
to be remaining in place as well. Given the Bush
campaign’s refusal to admit any mistakes in Iraq, it was
inevitable that the Pentagon leadership that managed US
policy in Iraq would remain. Any other course would have
reflected badly on the administration’s policy line.
Powell, however, was expendable and he was not invited
to stay on. His loyal deputy, Richard Armitage, too has
left. Armitage had played a major role in the US
formulation of policy toward South Asia that witnessed
the effective end of nuclear related sanctions on India
and Pakistan, the revival of military ties with the two
countries that was shaped by larger counter-terrorism
objectives, and US efforts to reduce tensions between
them.

Taking Powell’s place will be Condoleezza Rice, the
president’s national security advisor during his first
term. Looming foreign policy challenges such as nuclear
weapons programmes in Iran and North Korea, the
Palestinian issue, and a post-election Iraq will test
her bureaucratic skills against rivals, especially in
the Department of Defence, and will determine how
effectively she can rebuild international alliances to
address these issues. At least on the bureaucratic
politics, Rice has several advantages over her
predecessor: she is personally close to the president;
she goes into her job with a wealth of knowledge about
the issues and the complicated bureaucratic policy
formulation process; her loyal deputy at the National
Security Council, Stephen Hadley, has been appointed her
successor.

At her January 18-19 confirmation hearings, Rice said
the State Department would be the “primary instrument�
of foreign relations. She stressed the importance of
alliances in fighting the war on terror and encouraging
the spread of democracy and asserted that the “time for
diplomacy is now.� She made specific reference to the
creation of an office at the Department to handle
reconstruction in crisis situations, a not-so-subtle
reminder that State will not abdicate this traditional
diplomatic responsibility to the Department of Defence,
as it was forced to do two years earlier. Her initial
appointments suggest the continuation of a
non-ideological approach to issues at the State
Department. Her first personnel action was the choice of
a deputy and she selected Robert Zoellick, the US trade
representative and a moderate, an appointment that also
points to a more focused approach to economic issues.
Bush gave his personal blessing to this team, stating in
their presence that the two “will form one of the really
strong, capable foreign policy teams our country has
ever had.� Rice bypassed John Bolton, the under
secretary of state for arms control and international
security, a hardline ideologue who is widely believed to
have lobbied for the position. Bolton’s likely
replacement is Robert G. Joseph, who worked closely with
Rice on non- proliferation issues at the NSC. These
appointments would represent a victory for foreign
policy realists in the Republican Party over
neo-conservatives who dominated foreign policy in Bush’s
first term. The pragmatic thrust will be further
strengthened by the likely appointment of NATO
Ambassador Nicholas Burns, a skilled negotiator and
career diplomat, in the number three position at State,
the under secretary for political affairs. Informed
opinion in Washington predicts that most assistant
secretaries in charge of the regional and functional
bureaus at the State Department will be her appointees
and not ideologues thrust on the Department to curb
dissent, as was once widely rumoured would be the case.

Regarding South Asia, Rice has an opportunity to build a
strategic relationship with India, a stated US goal that
has lacked momentum, in part due to the focus on Iraq. A
tentative start was taken in the decision to work
closely with key Asian powers of India, Japan and
Australia on tsunami relief. While this coordinating
function was turned over to the UN, it is a sound model.
These are democracies with no expansionist ambitions and
share the fundamental security views of the US. The
president in his inaugural address dedicated his second
term to the spread of democracy and the curbing of
tyranny. A good place to begin is to seek the
cooperation of the world’s largest democracy, India. Key
to this happening will be the appointment of a forceful
and politically well-connected assistant secretary for
South Asia."

Tokyo MP's role to be ignored under missile attack?

This article speculates on the current government
discussions trends regarding the chain of command and
the political control of the SDF in case of an attack on
the archipelago.

Quotes :

"The government plans to diminish the roles of
lawmakers-including the prime minister-in decisions to
counter surprise missile attacks from foreign nations.

A draft bill on amending the Self-Defense Forces Law
includes a plan that does not require the prime
minister's prior approval for the SDF to intercept an
incoming missile in a surprise attack. In addition, the
government would not be obliged to report to the Diet
any countermeasures taken in such emergencies.

Instead, the counterattack would follow procedures
established in advance by the director-general of the
Defense Agency. The final decision to launch interceptor
missiles would be left to the SDF commander-even without
an order from the defense chief.

The plan is intended to accelerate the process in the
limited time available to protect the populace from a
missile attack. A North Korean Nodong missile, for
example, could reach Japan within 10 minutes after its
launch.

But the proposed revisions will likely raise serious
concerns about the loss of civilian control over the
SDF.

The government plans to gain Cabinet approval of the
revision bill on Feb. 10 and submit it to the current
Diet session. Pacifist lawmakers are certain to oppose
the legislation.

The plan in countering a ballistic missile attack has
two sets of procedures.

One is for cases when there are ``risks of a missile
directed toward Japan.'' The other concerns a missile
attack without any warning sign.

If there are prior signs, the defense chief is to report
the threat to the prime minister. The prime minister
would then approve the carrying out of countermeasures
and give the defense chief the authority to give the
orders.

If an attack occurs, the SDF commander would act
according to rules of engagement compiled beforehand.

If an attack comes without any warning sign, the SDF
commander would decide whether to take countermeasures
based on an emergency manual, which will be compiled by
the defense chief.

The contents of the manual, which must be approved by
the prime minister, will fall under a government
ordinance and not be included in the main part of the
amended law, according to the government plan.

Under the current SDF law, approval from Japan's
Security Council, the Cabinet and the Diet must be
obtained before the prime minister can order the SDF to
engage in activities involving the use of force. Diet
approval is required after the fact, even for
emergencies."

Japan's re-emergence as a military power

Quotes :

"Earlier last week, 950 personnel from Japan's
Self-Defense Force (SDF) arrived on Indonesia's Aceh
coast, bearing humanitarian aid for victims of last
month's tsunami disaster.

The task force comprising three navy ships and several
helicopters arrived late: other militaries from the
United States and Singapore had already scaled down
similar missions to make way for non-military
organizations.

Nonetheless, the deployment is historic in both timing
and scope - it constitutes the country's largest mission
since World War II, and represents more proof that Japan
is shrugging out of its straitjacket pacifist
Constitution.

Significantly, the deployment did not provoke negative
reaction in Asia, including Southeast Asian countries
that previously suffered under Japan's wartime
occupation.

Jusuf Wanandi, from an Indonesian think tank, told the
Straits Times he had absolutely "no problems" with Japan
playing a bigger role in the region, so long as the
Japanese did not "go nuclear" and create a new arms
race.

Japanese officials have indeed been thinking about such
a wider role for the country's military. In its first
defense review in a decade, they sketched out plans for
a more proactive and assertive military last month.

Disaster relief and peacekeeping operations were added
to the SDF's defensive duties in a defense policy
document which candidly fingered North Korea and China
as "grave factors of insecurity."

That review marked the latest step in an often-tentative
Japanese experiment to "modernize" its military that had
begun in the early 1990s, in the wake of the first Gulf
War.

Japan contributed billions of dollars to the U.S. war
chest for that conflict, but sent no troops to liberate
Kuwait. That led to accusations of checkbook diplomacy
which stung some Japanese. The following year, in 1992,
Japan passed laws to allow the SDF to venture abroad, so
long as its troops were under a United Nations mandate.

Over the next decade, Japanese peacekeepers were sent to
countries like Cambodia, Mozambique, Rwanda and Timor
Leste.

In 2003, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi deployed about
600 troops in Iraq - a move which fuelled controversy
because it was the first time that Japanese forces were
sent to a country still seeing active warfare.

This sparked much soul-searching in the country, and
beyond, about Japan's global role. The capture of three
Japanese as hostages by Islamic militants and the
beheading of another last year upped the ante in the
debate swirling around Koizumi's bid to make Japan a
normal state.

The problem here, however, is not so much Japan's past -
but its future. While it has repeatedly stressed that
its goals are peaceful, other recent measures have had
countries like China and South Korea on edge.

These include plans to:

- Seek a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council;

- Upgrade its Defense Agency into a full-fledged
ministry (a status lost after World War II);

- Beef up civilian control over the SDF to speed up
response to threats, such as recent incursions into its
territory by North Korean and Chinese vessels;

- Build a mid-range ballistic missile system that can
hit targets in Shanghai, Beijing and Pyongyang:

- Develop jointly with the United States a missile
defense system that will help ensure that any
pre-emptive or retaliatory strikes will be struck down.

The ultimate prize for Koizumi would be the refashioning
of Article 9 of the country's pacifist Constitution,
which expressly forbids Japan from having any armed
forces. He has hitherto stretched the interpretation of
Article 9 to justify his actions.

A new draft, which is expected late this year, will lend
more legitimacy to what one commentator called a "shift
from passive pacifism to proactive pacifism."

" Koizumi is trying to make the Constitution more honest
to reality," said Dr. Hiro Katsumata, a post-doctoral
fellow at Sin-gapore's Institute of Defense and
Strategic Studies.

These moves all portray a Japan that is becoming more
assertive. In November last year, for example, Japan
extracted a rare apology from China after it tracked
down a Chinese nuclear attack submarine in its waters.

Whether Japan's bid for a bigger global role will be
viewed benignly by Ch.ina and South Korea - immediate
neighbors which carry scars of Japan's wartime past - is
another matter.

"Having Japan as a reinvigorated military power will
significantly alter Asia's political and security
environment and give other regional powers something
else to consider in their own planning," Stratfor, a
U.S.-based intelligence firm, said in a recent report.

There are two competing schools of thought: those who
believe that Tokyo is reverting to its "hegemonic
intent" of old, and pragmatists who argue that Japan is
simply reacting to a deteriorating security environment
- a nuclear-armed North Korea, a more confident Chinese
military and the threat from terrorism.

Japan's recent deployment in Indonesia, the pragmatists
say, is the country's latest bid to add a positive
element to international security.

In the long run, however, only time will tell. And much
of this, say analysts, will depend on China's reactions
to Japan's re-emergence as a military power.

"Japan's planned revision of the Constitution is causing
some tension," professor Zhu Feng, an international
relations lecturer at Beijing University, told the
Straits Times.

"But it reflects a new drive for respect in the region.
The majority of the Chinese can understand such an
endeavor." W Choong ST Singapore"

America abandoned

HOW THE U.S. BECAME THE WORLD'S DISPENSABLE NATION

by Michael Lind (Financial Times)

In a second inaugural address tinged with evangelical
zeal, George W. Bush declared: "Today, America speaks
anew to the peoples of the world." The peoples of the
world, however, do not seem to be listening. A new world
order is indeed emerging - but its architecture is being
drafted in Asia and Europe, at meetings to which
Americans have not been invited.

Consider Asean Plus Three (APT), which unites the member
countries of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations
with China, Japan and South Korea. This group has the
potential to be the world's largest trade bloc, dwarfing
the European Union and North American Free Trade
Association. The deepening ties of the APT member states
represent a major diplomatic defeat for the US, which
hoped to use the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation
forum to limit the growth of Asian economic regionalism
at American expense. In the same way, recent moves by
South American countries to bolster an economic
community represent a clear rejection of US aims to
dominate a western-hemisphere free trade zone.

Consider, as well, the EU's rapid progress toward
military independence. American protests failed to
prevent the EU establishing its own military planning
agency, independent of the NATO alliance (and thus of
Washington). Europe is building up its own rapid
reaction force. And despite US resistance, the EU is
developing Galileo, its own satellite network, which
will break the monopoly of the US global positioning
satellite system.

The participation of China in Europe's Galileo project
has alarmed the US military. But China shares an
interest with other aspiring space powers in preventing
American control of space for military and commercial
uses. Even while collaborating with Europe on Galileo,
China is partnering Brazil to launch satellites. And in
an unprecedented move, China recently agreed to host
Russian forces for joint Russo-Chinese military
exercises.

The US is being sidelined even in the area that Mr Bush
identified in last week's address as America's mission:
the promotion of democracy and human rights. The EU has
devoted far more resources to consolidating democracy in
post-communist Europe than has the US. By contrast,
under Mr Bush, the US hypocritically uses the promotion
of democracy as the rationale for campaigns against
states it opposes for strategic reasons. Washington
denounces tyranny in Iran but tolerates it in Pakistan.
In Iraq, the goal of democratisation was invoked only
after the invasion, which was justified earlier by
claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass
destruction and was collaborating with al-Qaeda.

Nor is American democracy a shining example to mankind.
The present one-party rule in the US has been produced
in part by the artificial redrawing of political
districts to favour Republicans, reinforcing the
domination of money in American politics. America's
judges -- many of whom will be appointed by Mr Bush --
increasingly behave as partisan political activists in
black robes. America's antiquated winner-take-all
electoral system has been abandoned by most other
democracies for more inclusive versions of proportional
representation.

In other areas of global moral and institutional reform,
the US today is a follower rather than a leader. Human
rights? Europe has banned the death penalty and torture,
while the US is a leading practitioner of execution.
Under Mr Bush, the US has constructed an international
military gulag in which the torture of suspects has
frequently occurred. The international rule of law? For
generations, promoting international law in
collaboration with other nations was a US goal. But the
neoconservatives who dominate Washington today mock the
very idea of international law. The next US attorney
general will be the White House counsel who scorned the
Geneva Conventions as obsolete.

A decade ago, American triumphalists mocked those who
argued that the world was becoming multipolar, rather
than unipolar. Where was the evidence of balancing
against the US, they asked. Today the evidence of
foreign co-operation to reduce American primacy is
everywhere -- from the increasing importance of regional
trade blocs that exclude the US to international space
projects and military exercises in which the US is
conspicuous by its absence.

It is true that the US remains the only country capable
of projecting military power throughout the world. But
unipolarity in the military sphere, narrowly defined, is
not preventing the rapid development of multipolarity in
the geopolitical and economic arenas -- far from it. And
the other great powers are content to let the US waste
blood and treasure on its doomed attempt to recreate the
post-first world war British imperium in the Middle
East.

That the rest of the world is building institutions and
alliances that shut out the US should come as no
surprise. The view that American leaders can be trusted
to use a monopoly of military and economic power for the
good of humanity has never been widely shared outside of
the US. The trend toward multipolarity has probably been
accelerated by the truculent unilateralism of the Bush
administration, whose motto seems to be that of the
Hollywood mogul: "Include me out."

In recent memory, nothing could be done without the US.
Today, however, practically all new international
institution-building of any long-term importance in
global diplomacy and trade occurs without American
participation.

In 1998 Madeleine Albright, then US secretary of state,
said of the U.S.: "We are the indispensable nation." By
backfiring, the unilateralism of Mr Bush has proven her
wrong. The US, it turns out, is a dispensable nation.

Europe, China, Russia, Latin America and other regions
and nations are quietly taking measures whose effect if
not sole purpose will be to cut America down to size.

Ironically, the US, having won the cold war, is adopting
the strategy that led the Soviet Union to lose it:
hoping that raw military power will be sufficient to
intimidate other great powers alienated by its
belligerence. To compound the irony, these other great
powers are drafting the blueprints for new international
institutions and alliances. That is what the US did
during and after the second world war.

But that was a different America, led by wise and
constructive statesmen like Dean Acheson, the secretary
of state who wrote of being "present at the creation."
The bullying approach of the Bush administration has
ensured that the US will not be invited to take part in
designing the international architecture of Europe and
Asia in the 21st century. This time, the US is absent at
the creation.

The writer is senior fellow at the New America
Foundation in Washington, DC
Financial Times, 25 January 2005

Japan, France study GPS-based tsunami warning system

Researchers in Japan and France have begun joint
research using data from the recent tsunami catastrophe
in the Indian Ocean to study the prospect of using
global positioning system to track earthquakes and warn
of tsunamis.

"If the focus of the quake is near a GPS observation
point, we will be able to see the condition of the sea
surface from above and figure out details of the size
and speed of a tsunami right after it is developed,"
said Makoto Murakami, a research coordinator at Japan's
Geographical Survey Institute.

If successful, geologists will be able to record the
conditions of tsunamis immediately after an earthquake
is detected, track the movements of any consequent
tsunamis and issue precise warnings before the waves hit
shore.

When quakes and tsunamis jolt the earth and sea
surfaces, the atmosphere above them is in turn pushed up
and down. The vibration shakes electrons in the
ionosphere and results in a delay in electric waves
transmitted to observation stations from GPS satellites
some 20,000 kilometers above ground, Murakami said.

By analyzing data at the 1,200 GPS stations operated by
the institute in Japan, scientists will be able to track
the conditions of tsunamis within several hundred
kilometers from the coast, he said.

As there are a few tsunami observation equipment set up
at sea, scientists currently can only estimate the
movement and scale of tsunamis using data from
seismometers and tide gauges along coasts.

The Japanese institute, under the Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure and Transport, and the Paris Geophysical
Institute in France began basic research on the use of
GPS to track tsunamis after a June 2001 earthquake off
Peru.

North Korean narcotics : 2003's Pong Su incident

NBR North Korea: Pong Su incident Fri, 21 Jan 2005
by Professor Robyn Lim

"The Tuvalu-registered North Korean freighter Pong Su was
intercepted off the coast of eastern Australia in April
2003. After a long and dramatic chase, it was boarded at
gunpoint by the Australian Navy. It was carrying a
senior North Korean communist official as well as a
large amount of heroin.

At the trial of the crew members charged with drug
trafficking, the Australian Federal Police said that the
drugs had been loaded aboard the ship at the North
Korean port of Nampo. Some estimates of the value to
North Korea of the drug trade are in the order of US 1
billion annually.

"Small amounts" to help a poor little bankrupt nation? I
don't think so somehow. And of course it would be naive
not to think that the Dear Leader is at the centre of
it. Much of the drug trade is run out of Macao. Hard to
imagine that the PLA does not know about it or take its
cut. Indeed, criminality in the PLA is a growing problem
in China because corruption is the cancer that is eating
China. Linking up with the triads in Southeast Asia of
course. That is hardly a new connection either for the
communist regime in China.

The former head of Hong Kong police intelligence, Steve
Vickers, told the media that Macau is a base North Korea
uses to raise foreign currency through organised crime.
"In reality, it's a criminal regime. Drugs, kidnappings,
counterfeit documents, bank notes, you name it, they're
doing it"."

Nakasone seeks revision of Constitution, calls for possessing defense army and clarifying emperor as head of state

The draft revision of the Constitution revealed Thursday
by a private policy think tank chaired by former Prime
Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone defines the emperor as the
head of state and stipulates that "defense forces"
should be maintained for self-defense.

The draft made by the Institute of International Policy
Studies in Tokyo also proposes the addition of clauses
concerning emergency situations, such as national
security breaches, terrorism and massive natural
disasters, under which provisions of the Constitution
would be suspended temporarily and the prime minister's
power increased.

Comprising a preamble and 116 articles in 11 chapters,
the draft enhances the authority of the prime minister
and defines House of Representatives elections as
virtually prime ministerial elections. It is said to be
unique in its inclusion of an article confirming the
importance of the family unit.

According to the institute, which was established in
1988, Nakasone and its members spent 1-1/2 years
compiling the draft, which the institute said it sees as
a model for a new constitution for Japan in the 21st
century.

As for national security, the draft revision retains the
provision concerning the renunciation of war in the
first paragraph of Article 9 of the current
Constitution, but provides for maintaining defense
forces for self-defense in the second paragraph.

It also allows for the participation of a Japanese
military in activities under the auspices of the United
Nations or international cooperation for the purpose of
international peace and humanitarian aid. However,
activities in which force might be used would be subject
to Diet approval.

Although the current Constitution stipulates that
executive power is vested in the cabinet, the draft
gives exclusive administrative authority to the prime
minister to strengthen his or her leadership.

While it stipulates that the prime minister shall be
elected from among lower house members through a lower
house resolution, the draft requires political parties
to specify the names of their prime ministerial
candidates during lower house elections.

The section aims to make lower house elections into
prime ministerial elections through providing voters
with information on each party's prime ministerial
candidates, while maintaining the current parliamentary
cabinet system.

The draft also allows the prime minister to submit his
or her own bills to a referendum with support of
one-third of both houses' members if the bill conflicts
with the Diet.

According to the draft, the bill can be enacted if the
populace agrees.

China warns Japan against new defense plan

China Tuesday urged Japan to refrain from "unilateral
action" following reports that Tokyo has developed a
plan to defend islands in disputed parts of the East
China Sea.

"China always advocates that the disputes on this issue
between China and Japan should be resolved through
consultation," foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan told
a regular briefing.

"Both sides should refrain from any unilateral action."

The Japanese plan calls for the dispatch of 55,000
troops as well as warplanes, destroyers and submarines
from Japan's main islands in the event of an attack on
Okinawa and other remote islands, Kyodo news agency said
earlier.

The islands include the Senkakus, known in Chinese as
the Diaoyu islands, which both countries claim as their
own.

"China takes this seriously and has reaffirmed on many
occasions that Diaoyu island and its related islands
have been part of Chinese territory since ancient
times," said Kong.

In November Japan made public its new defense guidelines
which for the first time explicitly point to China as a
potential threat, along with North Korea.

Japan NHK TV producer says political intervention was 'constant'

A chief NHK producer in charge of a 2001 program on
Japan's sexual slavery during World War II said Thursday
that workers were forced to edit the program because of
LDP political pressure and that political intervention at
NHK was "constant" under the system built up by NHK
President Katsuji Ebisawa.

NHK producer Satoru Nagai wipes away tears during his
news conference in Tokyo on Thursday.

"We were forced to edit the program under pressure from
politicians. NHK allowed the political intervention,"
the chief producer, Satoru Nagai, said in a news
conference in Tokyo.

"Outspoken cases of political intervention like this are
rare, but since the establishment of the system under
President Katsuji Ebisawa, political intervention has
been constant," Nagai said. "President Ebisawa ought to
have received a report about this problem and understood
it. The president and executives should all resign."

It is unusual for a whistle-blower who is still working
to come out and hold a news conference.

In December last year, Nagai requested that NHK's
compliance commission, the body that handles
whistle-blowing within the broadcaster, conduct an
investigation into the incident. He reportedly decided
to hold a news conference because one month had passed
without any investigation being conducted.

Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Shoichi Nakagawa
and former Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe reportedly
summoned Takeshi Matsuo, then executive director-general
of broadcasting, over the program, which featured a mock
trial on the Imperial Japanese Army's use of "comfort
women" during World War II, Nagai said.

Nagai, 42, said the program was almost completed on the
evening of Jan. 28, 2001, two days before the scheduled
broadcast. However, shortly after 6 p.m. the following
evening, Matsuo approached him and said, "We're going to
change the program. Show it to me." He then took the
rare move of viewing the program with Naoki Nojima, an
NHK executive in charge of Diet affairs at that time,
and program production official Ritsuko Ito.

Part of the mock trial that said the emperor bore
responsibility was subsequently cut, and comments from
well-informed people criticizing the mock trial were
increased, according to Nagai.

Then on Jan. 30, the day of the broadcast, another order
was given to cut testimonies from former "comfort
women," the term used to refer to sex slaves during the
war.

NHK officials maintain that the program was edited based
on an independent decision. But Nagai contradicted the
statement.

"In response to the second revision order, in
particular, everyone there at the time was opposed,
including the section head," Nagai said.

NHK admitted that the program had raised a stir when
various Diet members heard about it, but said this had
not affected the impartiality or fairness of the
program.

Explaining his reasons for holding the news conference,
Nagai said he needed to state the truth.

"Holding the news conference might be disadvantageous
for me. For four years, I worried about this, but I
decided that I had a responsibility to state the truth,"
he said with tears in his eyes.

Both Abe and Nakagawa have denied pressuring NHK to edit
the program. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Jan. 13, 2005)

Tsunami : Indonesia reluctant to foreign aid while logistics don't work

The French helicopter-carrier Jeanne D'Arc to reach on
Friday northern Indonesia on a mission to deliver
humanitarian aid to the tsunami-hit town of Meulaboh.

Helicopter pilots on the ship were busy training
Tuesday, hauling medicines and other aid into the air
and suspending them above the bridge while soldiers
sorted the supplies and stacked them in a nearby hangar.

The Jeanne D'Arc left Djibouti earlier Tuesday with six
helicopters and 600 crew to transport 6,000 food
rations, 800 tonnes of water and water treatment
equipment, five tonnes of medicine and field medical
posts.

Until Tuesday, Meulaboh had only been reachable by air
or sea as most major roads to the town have been washed
away. Ships from the Indonesian, US and Singapore navies
have brought in supplies while helicopters have made
airdrops.

"The tension will certainly mount before our arrival in
the (disaster) zone, but, for now, we are trying to make
the best of the time we have left to prepare," said an
officer on the ship after it left the French military
base.

The Jeanne D'Arc had already participated in
humanitarian operations, in particular last year in
Haiti, but it had never undertaken an operation of this
magnitude, he added.

"The Indonesian authorities estimate that only 30,000 to
40,000 of Meulaboh's 100,000-strong population are
left," said Christophe Bergey, the ship's press officer.

With an accompanying frigate, Georges Leygues, the
Jeanne D'Arc can produce 50 tonnes of drinking water
each day in addition to its own requirements.

Its medical setup includes an operating bloc, two
intensive care beds and two hospital beds. A total of 20
doctors and a dozen nurses were making the voyage.

The final destination of the Jeanne D'Arc was still
being discussed with the United States and the
Indonesian authorities, but it was expected to drop
anchor off the northern coast of Sumatra between the
towns of Meulaboh and Banda Aceh some time on Friday.

"We will position ourselves between ten and twenty
nautical miles (18.5 to 37 kilometres)" off the coast,
said the captain of the helicopter-carrier, Marc de
Briancon.

As the nearest refuelling points were Banda Aceh and
Medan, some 200 kilometres apart, the helicopter carrier
could also serve as a fuel station for the fleet of
helicopters delivering relief, the captain added.

The first major convoy of aid trucks reached Meulaboh
Tuesday, more than two weeks after it was almost
completely cut off by the tsunami disaster, which killed
an estimated 28,000 people there when waves swept
inland.

In the same time, the U.S. military faced tighter
restrictions Wednesday as the Indonesian government
sought to reassert control over foreign troops, relief
workers and journalists in the tsunami-devastated
region, which also has been the site of a rebel
insurgency.

The moves by the Indonesian government, aimed primarily
at U.S. troops, underscore the nationalistic country’s
sensitivities at having foreign military forces
operating there — even in a humanitarian effort. They
also come amid warnings from the Indonesian military
that areas of tsunami-battered Aceh province may not be
safe for aid workers.

Hundreds of from troops from France, Australia,
Singapore, Germany and other nations are also prepared
to help the relief mission. The Indonesian military is
providing security for all of them.

The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is
leading the U.S. military’s relief effort, steamed out
of Indonesian waters Wednesday because the U.S. Navy
only has permission from the Indonesians to fly aircraft
into its airspace that are directly supporting the
humanitarian operation, said Lt. Cmdr. John M. Daniels,
spokesman for the Lincoln carrier strike group.
Helicopters will still deliver aid to Sumatra’s
devastated coast, however.

Indonesia declined to let the ship’s fighter pilots use
its airspace for training missions. Under U.S. Navy
rules, pilots of carrier-based warplanes cannot go
longer than 14 days without flying or their skills are
considered to have degraded too far.

Since the Abraham Lincoln has been stationed off Sumatra
since Jan. 1, the carrier moved out of Indonesian waters
so its pilots could conduct their training flights in
international airspace.

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said foreign
troops would be out of the country by March 31.

"A three-month period is enough, even the sooner the
better," Kalla said.

The government also ordered aid workers and journalists
to declare travel plans or face expulsion from Aceh as
authorities moved to reassert control of the
rebellion-wracked area. The White House said Wednesday
it has asked the Indonesian government to explain the
restrictions on aid workers and journalists.

"We’ll seek further clarification from Indonesia about
what this means," White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
"We hope that the government of Indonesia and the
military in Indonesia will continue the strong support
they have provided to the international relief efforts
so far."

Financial :

At a Paris meeting Wednesday, a French official said the
world’s wealthiest nations, including the United States,
believe a temporary suspension of billions of dollars in
debt repayments by tsunami-devastated countries will
provide a necessary "breath of oxygen" for recovery and
reconstruction from the disaster that killed more than
150,000 people across southern Asia.

While three debtor countries — Indonesia, Sri Lanka and
the Seychelles — support the moratorium, Thailand does
not because it fears the potential effect on its
standing in international financial markets, French
Finance Minister Herve Gaymard told French radio.

The proposed moratorium on debt repayments by
tsunami-hit countries "was very quickly accepted" by the
19 creditor nations that make up the Paris Club, Finance
minister Hervé Gaymard said. The details on the
moratorium were being finalized Wednesday.

Later, as the Paris Club met to sign off on the
proposal, Gaymard told reporters the leading
industrialized nations within the club regard the
moratorium as "completely indispensable" for tsunami-hit
countries "to overcome the immense difficulties."

Security concerns threaten to hamper efforts to deliver
aid to Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra
island, where more than 100,000 people were killed and
tens of thousands left homeless or in need. The United
Nations has been running the relief effort, appealing to
donors attending a conference in Geneva to honor the
unprecedented $4 billion in pledges to help victims.

Separatists in the Aceh region have been fighting for an
independent state for decades. Indonesia’s military
chief offered the rebels a cease-fire Tuesday, matching
a unilateral one already declared by the insurgents.

The military has nevertheless warned that rebels could
rob aid convoys and use refugee camps as hideouts but
has yet to offer evidence to back its claims.

"It is important to note that the government would be
placed in a very difficult position if any foreigner who
came to Aceh to assist in the aid effort was harmed
through the acts of irresponsible parties," the
government said in a statement.

Asked if those who failed to register with the
government before traveling outside the provincial
capital, Banda Aceh, would be expelled, Welfare Minister
Alwi Shihab said: "I think that is one possibility."

Australian Prime Minister John Howard described
Indonesia’s demand as "a good idea." "It is very, very
important that in the process of giving full effect to
this magnificent international response, that we
recognize the difficulties in Aceh, but that we don’t
overreact to them and we don’t dramatize them," he said.

But Australian National University defense expert Clive
Williams said the Indonesians wanted to keep close tabs
on foreigners to conceal military corruption and not
protect them from rebels.

"The big problem with dealing with (the military) in
Aceh is that they’re involved in a lot of corruption
there and the reason I think they don’t want people to
go to some areas is because they’re involved in human
rights abuses in those areas," Williams said.

Before the tsunami, foreigners were banned from the
area, and Wednesday’s demand highlighted the unease with
which Indonesia has faced the aid operation, replete
with civilian aid workers and foreign soldiers.

U.S. Marines have scaled back plans to send hundreds of
troops ashore to build roads and clear rubble. Col. Tom
Greenwood, commander of the 15th Marine Expeditionary
Unit, said earlier this week they would instead keep
only a "minimal footprint."

In a major compromise, the Marines agreed not to carry
guns while on Indonesian soil and that the vast majority
of troops would return to ships stationed off the coast
after each day’s operations. The bulk of the Marines’
mission has become ferrying aid workers and transporting
food from the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme
Richard.

The Marines flew a French medical team to the shattered
city of Calang by helicopter Wednesday and delivered
supplies to Indonesian troops in Meulaboh to the south.
Navy crews based on the Abraham Lincoln have flown
hundreds of relief missions in the past two weeks. U.N.
agencies said they did not expect Jakarta’s order to
affect their operations because their security officers
already work closely with Indonesia’s military.

"It could change the situation of (non-governmental
organizations) who are moving around like private
persons," said Mals Nyberg, a spokesman for the U.N.
High Commission for Refugees. "I guess that’s what
soldiers want to control — that people are moving in
conflict areas just like tourists."

Nyberg said Indonesian bureaucracy had eased in recent
days, allowing the organization to get permission faster
for helicopter flights to outlying regions.

Getting help to the neediest is already difficult, with
roads washed away or blocked by downed trees.

Kevin Kennedy, a senior official in the U.N. Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said food
assistance has been delivered to all the affected people
in Sri Lanka. But he said some villages on the hard-hit
west coast of Sumatra had not been reached. He said the
U.N. World Food Program was delivering aid to 300,000
people on the island.