JAPAN'S PLANS FOR MARITIME SECURITY ASSISTANCE FOR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DILI 000095 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR DAS SCOT MARCIEL,EAP/MTS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ASEC SUBJECT: JAPAN'S PLANS FOR MARITIME SECURITY ASSISTANCE FOR TIMOR-LESTE DILI 00000095 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (SBU) Summary. A visiting Japan ministry of foreign affairs official briefed us on Japan's plans for providing maritime security assistance to Timor-Leste, possibly in partnership with Australia and the United States. A full government of Japan interagency assessment team will visit Dili in April to evaluate whether Japan should dispatch up to four representatives of its Maritime Safety Agency (JMSA, the Japanese Coast Guard equivalent) to the UN mission in Timor-Leste to assist the Timorese national police's maritime component. Separately, the Japanese ambassador repeated his concern that the JMSA will take a very cautious approach towards a possible mission in Timor-Leste, despite the ambassador's belief that the agency has more than adequate resources to support such assistance. Together with Japan, we will coordinate among key donors in Dili, to include Australia and Portugal, to assess current and planned activities in the maritime security area. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) Deputy Director Itou of the International Peace Cooperation Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), reviewed with us on March 26 Japan's current thinking regarding maritime security assistance for Timor-Leste. Japan's tentative plans center on the dispatch of four officials from Japan's Maritime Safety Agency (JMSA -- roughly equivalent to the U.S. Coast Guard) to the UN Integrated Mission to Timor-Leste (UNMIT) to assist the Timor National Police's (PNTL) maritime operations. The PNTL currently has forty officers assigned to a maritime police unit near Atabae, west of Dili. The JMSA objective would be to provide training and improve PNTL's management of its maritime police unit. The four Japanese officials would include a Special Advisor to the PNTL Commissioner, an assistant to this advisor (both to be assigned to UNMIT headquarters in Dili),and two operational advisors to be located at the PNTL unit in Atabae. In addition, Japan is considering the donation of equipment, including small patrol boats. The next step will be the dispatch to Dili of an interagency assessment team to include representatives of MOFA, JMSA and the Prime Minister's Office, likely to take place in late-April 2008. ¶3. (SBU) Itou also met with Australian embassy officials during his visit to Dili, as well as UNMIT, and noted the possibility that Japan's assistance in this area could be part of a trilateral U.S.-Australia-Japan cooperation effort. He highlighted Japan's Law for International Peace Cooperation that restricts Japanese civilian police officers from providing maritime security sector advice unless deployed on a United Nations peacekeeping mission. Hence, UNMIT's role. Further, Japanese advisors are excluded from participating in law enforcement activities such as arrests, searches, seizures, and patrol operations. ¶4. (SBU) Japan's ambassador to Timor-Leste explained that Japan also is legally bound from providing support to foreign militaries. Currently, both the PNTL and the Timorese defense force (F-FDTL) have maritime units. The Timorese government proposed in August 2007 that all maritime responsibilities be consolidated in the military. Since then, however, senior government officials have suggested the creation of a hybrid or joint PNTL/F-FDTL maritime command. Potentially, either could pose serious legal constraints on Japanese assistance to Timorese coast guard-type operations. Ambassador Shimizu told us today that he hopes that the negotiation of a tripartite Japan-UNMIT-GOTL memorandum of understanding would provide adequate legal support for Japanese assistance. ¶5. (SBU) Ambassador Shimizu again expressed caution regarding JMSA's eagerness to contribute to a Timor assistance program, noting that JMSA headquarters tended to be very conservative in taking on new international responsibilities. JMSA cites resource constraints as the basis for their cautiousness, although Shimizu described them as well endowed with material resources, just lacking in initiative. He noted that there is significant political momentum in Tokyo behind the dispatch of JMSA personnel to Timor-Leste given its geographic location, the large UN presence and the political void created when the Japanese national police pulled its two officers out of UNMIT's DILI 00000095 002.2 OF 002 peacekeeping operations in February 2008. ¶6. (SBU) In order to tighten donor coordination, Shimizu agreed to join us in an effort to share information on current or planned assistance to Timorese maritime authorities with Australia and Portugal - the two other key bilateral players in the security sector. We will seek to convene a meeting at the ambassadorial level well before the arrival of Japan's assessment team in April. We will also continue to liaise with UNMIT, PNTL and F-FDTL, and support as appropriate the interagency GOJ assessment mission to Dili next month. KLEMM