Tokyo Initiative: $200 Million in Aid to Cambodia

Japan today pledged up to $200 million in bilateral aid to Cambodia, nearly one-third the estimated amount of international funds needed to help rebuild the Southeast Asian nation devastated by more than a decade of civil war.

The pledge was expected to be the largest made at an international conference here today on Cambodia’s reconstruction, marking Japan’s first major effort to seize the initiative in global diplomacy. Although frequently criticized for a lack of global leadership, Japanese officials have targeted Cambodia as a test case for their diplomacy and placed their international prestige on the line by sponsoring a conference fraught with so many political risks.

The United States was expected to announce its pledge later in the day, and a U.S. official said it would be close to the Japanese, probably making it the second largest. Along with substantial contributions expected from France, Australia and others among the 33 nations represented, donors expected to successfully collect the $600 million that the United Nations estimated would be needed for infrastructure, education and training, administration and other reconstruction costs.

“From the economic side, we can already say the conference is a success story,” an Asian diplomat said.

But left unanswered was whether the conference would also result in a political triumph. It was nearly derailed by the Khmer Rouge’s refusal to attend, a decision abruptly reversed late Sunday after strong pressure from high-ranking Japanese officials.

Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan had repeatedly voiced concern that the aid and assistance would primarily go to prop up the Vietnamese-backed Phnom Penh government. He has also complained that Vietnamese troops have not completely withdrawn from Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge argues that a continued Vietnam presence is reason for not cooperating with the U.N. effort to disarm the four warring parties and prepare for national elections next year.

The Khmer Rouge’s refusal to cooperate with U.N. military disarmament efforts came under fire today. In opening remarks, Yasushi Akashi, head of the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia, repeatedly took the Khmer Rouge to task--identifying it only as “one party” or “that party”--for failing to live up to the four-party agreement it signed last October in Paris.

Calling it an obstacle to peace, Akashi criticized Khmer Rouge for refusing to allow access to U.N. troops into zones it controls, and he rejected the Khmer Rouge’s assertion that aid would primarily benefit the Phnom Penh government.

Other opening remarks were made by Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, Cambodia’s Supreme National Council President Norodom Sihanouk and William Draper, administrator of the U.N. Development Program. The Supreme National Council represents Cambodia’s transitional authority until elections are held next year.

Sihanouk made an emotional appeal to the world community not to abandon Cambodia despite political problems.

“Halting the aid process . . . to the ‘little people’ of Cambodia and the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the peaceful Cambodian parties is tantamount to condemning an entire nation to atone indefinitely for the mistakes committed by others. If this happens, we . . . are fated to remain one of the world’s most miserable and martyred nations,” Sihanouk said.

The conference is expected to issue a “Tokyo declaration” on the peace process, as well as a separate statement on rehabilitation and reconstruction. The draft copy of the reconstruction statement says that the effort is “highly dependent” on “strict adherence” to the 1991 Paris accords, that the main responsibility rests with the Cambodia people and that aid will be disbursed impartially.