VZCZCXRO5950
PP RUEHCHI RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHDT #0095/01 0870948
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P R 270948Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY DILI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3950
INFO RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0851
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1153
RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RHHMUNA/USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RULSJGA/USCG HQ WASHDC
RUEHDT/AMEMBASSY DILI 3379

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