Accused deserter a touchstone for
US-Japan ties By Kosuke Takahashi
TOKYO - Accused US Army deserter Charles Robert
Jenkins is becoming a touchstone for the strength and
pragmatism of close Japan-US strategic and political
relations. The handling of the sensitive case is also a
measure of how humanitarianism versus hardball politics
plays in the two democratic countries, especially in a
US election year.
Jenkins, reportedly suffering
from peritonitis after abdominal surgery in North Korea,
is expected to return from Jakarta to Tokyo on Sunday
for emergency medical treatment and will be swiftly
hospitalized. The case isn't resolved; Japan and the
United States have an extradition treaty and Jenkins,
accused of deserting from South Korea to North Korea in
1965, could still face a US court martial.
The
case was not decided as of Friday, but remarks by US
Ambassador Howard Baker to journalists on Thursday gave
an indication of US flexibility and a possible deal in
the making. Baker said the US would ask for custody -
but when was not decided.
On Friday Japanese
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said the US
ambassador has indicated a possible plea bargain on
unspecified charges against Jenkins. "The ambassador
might have expressed his personal idea, but we have to
consider it from various aspects, as it is impossible to
forecast beforehand military justice proceedings,"
Hosoda said. Baker conveyed his suggestion in a meeting
with senior officials of the ruling Liberal Democratic
Party and its coalition partner the New Komeito party,
he said.
On Thursday Baker said the US
government was sympathetic to Jenkins' health problems -
reported by the Kyodo News Agency to be peritonitis -
and Washington was not insisting he be treated at a
hospital at a US military base if he came to Japan. "If
and when he comes to Japan we will ask for custody -
exactly when remains to be seen," Baker said. "It's
certainly possible he could come to Japan, that the
United States would insist on its rights, but that
actual custody would not be sought or consummated under
some circumstances," he was quoted as saying by Japanese
and Western media.
Observers said there appeared
tentative signs of a deal whereby Jenkins would not be
handed over for trial, and several scenarios have been
proposed. The US, however, has been annoyed that
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been
pushing for Jenkins to come to Tokyo, and pushed for the
accused deserter's earlier family reunion in Indonesia -
this at a time when US President George W Bush is facing
a tough election battle and the United States is
emphasizing discipline and morale among its troops in
Iraq.
Jenkins accused of deserting his DMZ
post in '65 Jenkins, 65, a native of North
Carolina, stands accused of abandoning his US Army unit
on the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South
Korea in 1965 and defecting to the North. He has since
lived there and has appeared in propaganda films. While
in North Korea, he married a Japanese woman who had been
kidnapped by Pyongyang agents. In October 2002, one
month after Koizumi's first visit to North Korea, she
returned to Tokyo with other Japanese abductees, but
Jenkins remained behind in North Korea with their two
daughters, fearing extradition from Japan. They were
recently reunited in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia,
which does not have an extradition treaty with the US.
Koizumi pushed hard for the reunion and he is now
pushing hard for medical treatment for Jenkins.
In Jakarta, Jenkins has not commented on the
situation and the Japanese government has kept the media
away from him and his wife, Hitomi Soga, 45, and their
two North Korean-born daughters, Mika, 21, and Belinda,
18, living in a luxury hotel in Jakarta. They were
dramatically reunited on July 9. At that time it did not
appear that his medical condition was life-threatening;
that assessment has changed and treatment in Tokyo now
appears urgent.
Hosoda has denied news reports
that the two sides had agreed that the US would not seek
Jenkins' handover while he is hospitalized, but it
appears the two sides will be negotiating while Jenkins
is undergoing medical treatment.
The Japanese
government appears to have made a snap decision to bring
the seriously ailing Jenkins to Tokyo from Jakarta on
Sunday. It lacks a clear exit strategy, apparently
counting on US cooperation in the short term at least.
Koizumi seems to believe that humanitarianism, combined
with his solid relationship with President Bush - and
Japan's crucial support for US policy in Iraq and its
defense posture in Asia - might trump US desertion
charges against Jenkins, and a court martial.
"It is possible that he has to get medical
treatment without a final accord with the United
States," Hosoda said on Thursday. "It is an emergency
escape or a life-saving measure." Hosoda stressed that
Jenkins' physical condition is very serious and the
government has to provide treatment and surgery as
swiftly as possible in Japan. He did elaborate on
Jenkins' condition.
Jenkins' wife Hitomi Soga
and her mother were kidnapped by North Korean agents
from Japan in 1978, and the mother is still missing,
along with other unaccounted-for Japanese who may have
been kidnapped. Japanese citizens who had been kidnapped
decades ago, including Soga, were allowed to return to
Japan after Koizumi's first Pyongyang summit; they
refused to go back to North Korea, and their families,
including Jenkins, remained in that country. A second
Koizumi summit last month reunited all but Jenkins and
his daughters.
Supporters say Jenkins was
captured Jenkins is still wanted by the US
government on charges of desertion, though an indictment
has not been leveled. His supporters say he was captured
by Pyongyang's soldiers in 1965 near the DMZ and did not
desert, as alleged.
Soga appears to have
persuaded Jenkins to return to Japan to live quietly,
although Japanese officials initially had expressed
concern that he might say he wanted to return to North
Korea after the reunion - which would be a huge
embarrassment for Japan and Koizumi. The family had been
expected to remain in Jakarta indefinitely, but the
situation took a sudden, dramatic turn on Wednesday when
Japan announced that Japanese and Indonesian doctors had
found Jenkins suffering from adverse post-operative
effects of abdominal surgery carried out in North Korea
in April, as well as problems with some internal organs.
The surgical incisions in his stomach are seriously
infected and need daily treatment, Japanese officials
said.
It was Koizumi who decided he should
return, telling reporters on Wednesday: "It would be
better to give medical treatment in Japan, while we are
trying to allow the family to live together as soon as
possible." Japanese officials say their objective is for
the family to be able to live in Japan.
The
Jenkins saga, however, may yet get more complicated.
Jenkins is also a hostage to the US need to
strengthen its troop discipline and morale in Iraq,
still a scene of violence, danger and low troops morale,
especially after the scandal of US abuse of Iraqi
prisoners. The United States cannot let soldiers accused
of misbehavior off the hook in Iraq, and so an accused
deserter from the 1960s also cannot be let off the hook.
US officials and Secretary of State Colin Powell
repeatedly have said there is no change in the US
intention to prosecute Jenkins, although they did not
oppose the family reunion in Indonesia on humanitarian
grounds. Still, the Americans were not happy at what
amounted to celebrity status for an accused deserter who
participated in anti-US North Korean propaganda,
willingly or not.
Japanese officials have
concluded there are no provisions in the Japan-US
extradition treaty or the Japan-US Status of Forces
Agreement for special treatment for accused persons with
health problems. They also conclude, however, that
Washington won't force Japan to hand over a person
immediately who is in poor health.
Japanese TV
station TBS presented on Thursday night three possible
scenarios for handling the case, based on interviews
with US officials in Washington:
The US allows Jenkins to be hospitalized in Tokyo
for quite a while, possibly until the US presidential
election in November, without bringing any indictments
against him and just waiting for a presidential pardon,
post-election.
The US allows Jenkins to be hospitalized only for a
short time, then brings indictments against him. But
Jenkins then plea-bargains, confessing everything he saw
and experienced in North Korea. Then charges are dropped
and Jenkins remains in Japan with his family.
The US allows Jenkins to be hospitalized only for a
short time, then indicts him in accordance with military
law. In this scenario, he would be tried in the US, just
as an ordinary war deserter.
As statements on
Thursday and Friday indicated, the second option might
be favored, but no decision has been made. Presumably,
however, the excellent state of US-Japan ties and the
stationing of Japanese troops in Iraq on a humanitarian
mission are important factors in Washington's Jenkins
calculus.
Critics say Koizumi has gone too
far Critics say Koizumi is too focused on
Jenkins and appears to have fallen in love with his own
political legacy and place in history, looking toward
the rest of his term ending in September 2006. This is
demonstrated, they say, by what they call his rush to
normalize diplomatic relations with North Korean leader
Kim Jong-il, without demanding credible information on
the other missing Japanese abductees. The critics - both
the political opposition and the families of missing
persons - also say Koizumi is not demanding the
dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons and
programs.
Koizumi may well believe he can do
pretty much what he likes, believing in and counting on
his solid relationship with Bush. Koizumi and many
others think Bush is somehow indebted to him for Japan's
Self-Defense Force (SDF) participation in a
multinational force in Iraq, and staying the course
despite the abduction of Japanese citizens in Iraq; they
were later released. Koizumi first told Bush during a
bilateral summit in the US state of Georgia on June 8
about his plans to have the SDF take part in the
multinational force in Iraq - even before telling the
Japanese people. His statement in the US caused
considerable indignation and offense at home, where the
nation is divided over any military or humanitarian
participation in Iraq. Koizumi's attitude and approach
has already buffeted his political standing at home,
especially in last Sunday's Upper House election, when
his ruling Liberal Democratic Party failed to achieve
its modest goal, but not by much; it's still in power.
Moreover, Koizumi seems to believe he can
largely exercise his own discretion in coping
bilaterally with North Korean issues, especially
normalization, given the ongoing process of the
six-party talks on defusing the Pyongyang nuclear
crisis. And the talks represent a kind of common
political safety valve for all of the six countries:
North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the
United States.
But Koizumi's relative
go-it-alone diplomatic approach on normalization could
definitely irritate Bush, who has said he "loathes" Kim
Jong-il. Japanese experts say Washington was already
annoyed by Koizumi's recent rapid approach to North
Korean, including his second one-day summit last month.
The US also might not want Japan to take initiatives in
Northeast Asia, where China has already emerged as a
regional power broker and where America's influence is
believed to be rapidly declining, especially in South
Korea.
For the US, one of the most difficult
issues in the Jenkins case is that Washington might look
like the bad guy - certainly in Japan and other
countries and quite possibly in the US itself - if it
insists on prosecuting him and not allowing him and his
family to live in peace in Japan. The US also will soon
have to figure out whether leniency toward Jenkins, a
rare scenario, would set an unfavorable precedent for
the nation and its military forces.
Initially,
North Korea appeared to design and time the release of
the abductees' families and the focus on Jenkins to
drive a wedge between the US and Japan in the common
effort to defuse North Korea's nuclear-weapons program.
In any case, the US and Japan now have to draw
up a coherent strategy to determine the future of
Jenkins, as well as the anti-nuclear arms talks.
Kosuke Takahashi is a former staff
writer at the Asahi Shimbun and is currently a freelance
correspondent based in Tokyo. He can be contacted atkosuke_everonward@ybb.ne.jp.
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