Wed 01 January 2020:
The Japanese government announced in late December that it will launch an aid program to help internally displaced people in a conflict zone in Myanmar’s northern state of Kachin to return home.
China has strong influence in northern Myanmar, including Kachin. Countrywide, Japan and China are tussling for diplomatic sway by helping with various infrastructure projects. Their rivalry is now spilling over into Myanmar’s sensitive internal ethnic conflicts.
The Japanese program aims to assist people displaced by Kachin’s decadeslong ethnic conflict, and is due to begin in the first half of 2020.
The Japanese government, together with the nonprofit Nippon Foundation, will contribute $5 million to help 3,000 people return to their villages who were forced to flee due to fighting between Myanmar troops and the rebel Kachin Independent Army.
The aid will be used to build 500 houses, latrines, and to provide agricultural training to raise farmers’ incomes. The Japanese Embassy in Yangon posted a statement on its Facebook page saying it “hopes that this assistance will contribute to improving the humanitarian situation in Kachin State and reaching a cease-fire agreement as soon as possible.”
Nippon Foundation Chairman Yohei Sasakawa is Japan’s special envoy for national reconciliation in Myanmar. The Tokyo-based organization is funded by revenue from gambling on boat races in Japan. Among other charitable work, it offers assistance to areas overseas affected by conflict.
There has been ethnic strife in Kachin since the country then known as Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948. According to the United Nations, about 100,000 people from Kachin live in camps for displaced people.
The Japanese aid program will initially be limited to areas under the control of Myanmar’s government, as there is no cease-fire in place between the military and the Kachin Independent Army.
Japan remains wary of Chinese influence in Myanmar, and its strategic contest with Beijing is evident in rival Chinese- and Japanese-funded urban development schemes in Yangon, and in infrastructure projects linking Yangon and Mandalay, Myamar’s second-largest city.
The two are also vying to give Myanmar diplomatic cover. China recently voted against a U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning alleged atrocities against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, while Japan abstained.
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