Japan Press Weekly

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2016 December 21 - 2017 January 3 [POLITICS]

Abe gov’t helps fuel civil war in South Sudan

The UN representative of the Japanese government on December 23 abstained from voting on a UNSC resolution urging an arms embargo against South Sudan. The resolution was scrapped on account of the minority in favor.

Japan has been dispatching Ground Self-Defense Force units to the South Sudanese capital of Juba to join the UN Peacekeeping Operations there. Based on the unconstitutional national security legislation which was forcibly enacted in the autumn of 2015, the Abe government assigns “rush-and-rescue” missions to the dispatched GSDF corps. Tokyo’s abstention shows that Japan is turning its back on international efforts to resolve the chaotic situation of the African country.

Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan to the UN, Okamura Yoshifumi, said that the resolution is “not productive”.

In South Sudan, since its secession from Sudan in 2011, the conflict between the group led by President Salva Kiir and supporters of Vice President Riek Machar has grown deeper and deeper. The two factions clashed in Juba in July 2016, and many citizens were killed and many women were gang-raped.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released a report on November 14 noting that the security situation in South Sudan is further deteriorating. On December 19, he called on the UNSC to implement measure including an arms embargo, pointing to the danger of mass murder.

In September, a U.S.-based private monitoring organization, The Sentry, condemned both of the conflicting forces for misappropriating government funds to purchase weapons. The organization demanded imposing economic sanctions such as an asset freeze against any party involved in the civil war.

In response to these calls, the measures stated in the UNSC resolution contained an arms embargo and the freezing of assets.

Past related article:
> Aomori residents rally to oppose planned SDF dispatch to South Sudan [October 31, 2016]