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Tokyo Aid Confab Should Have Been More Transparent - NGOs - Global policy Forum Tokyo Aid Confab
Should Have Been More TransparentBy Keiji Hirano
Kyodo News
January 22, 2002
A major international donor meeting for helping Afghanistan wrapping up in Tokyo on Tuesday should have been more transparent and accessible to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and news media, the leader of a Japanese NGO said. Along with three of his colleagues, Kensuke Onishi, overall supervisor of Peace Winds Japan (PWJ) and head of Japan Platform, was temporarily barred from the two-day gathering by the Foreign Ministry because of their ''antigovernment'' stance.
Ministry officials said the groups had to be cut off from the list of participants due to space constraints. But Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka told her staff to allow the four to at least attend the final day, saying, ''Without the activities of NGOs, (reconstruction) efforts like this will not move forward.''
Onishi said he welcomes being allowed to go, but is not satisfied with the limited access to the conference at a Tokyo hotel. He said, however, he is still willing to cooperate with the government in supporting the reconstruction process of the war-ravaged country.
''It is necessary to put aside the recent turmoil (between NGOs and the government) so that we can fully assist the people of Afghanistan,'' he said.
While organizers of the ministerial meeting hailed its pledge achievements, they faced mounting criticism that most of the forum was closed to the press and that NGO workers were only let in as observers. A major daily newspaper quoted Onishi as saying last week he does not trust ''the authorities'' very much, angering an influential politician in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. In response, a ministry official said the NGOs ''have hurt trustworthy relations with the government.''
Active in Afghanistan, Japan Platform is a Tokyo-based aid organization set up in 2000 by Japanese NGOs, the Foreign Ministry and the business sector. The PWJ is also involved in it.
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