Asia News Digest
Afghan troops deploy to the Pakistan border.
For the first time, on Sept. 30, Afghanistan officially deployed 500 troops along the Pakistani borders to prevent Taliban troops from moving into Afghanistan. On the same day, an American soldier was killed when U.S. troops clashed with suspected Taliban near a coalition base in Shkin, in Paktia province a few miles west of the Pakistani border.
Recently, when Afghan interim President Hamid Karzai was in New York, he told President Bush that Pakistan is pushing the Taliban into Afghanistan and the United States must pressure the Pakistani President to stop such infiltration. Otherwise, he warned, the Afghan situation would get out of hand.
Meanwhile, German Ambassador to the United Nations Gunter Plueger proposed on Sept. 29 at the UN to expand the international troops beyond Kabul to a number of towns in Afghanistan, creating what he described as "International Security Assistance Forces Islands." These "islands" will contain about 250-300 troops. As of now, the UN mandate does not allow the ISAF to deploy troops beyond Kabul. Ambassador Plueger also said that if the UN Security Council pushes through such a broader mandate, Germany will send more troops to assist the ISAF in Afghanistan.
Pakistani Troops Kill 12 al-Qaeda Fighters
Pakistani troops killed 12 suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban militia members on Oct. 2, Reuters reported, in a major operation in an area just a few hundred yards from the Afghan border. The action follows the accusation by Afghan President Hamid Karzai in New York that Pakistan is backing the anti-Kabul, anti-U.S. forces inside Pakistan.
Simultaneously, there was a last-minute decision by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to call off his visit to Pakistan. He, along with the Assistant Secretary of State, Christina Rocca, were scheduled to visit Islamabad on Oct. 3. The cancellation appears to stem from a statement by Armitage that Pakistani President Musharraf has been doing his best to stop the infiltration into Afghanistan, but he is not getting full cooperation from his military and intelligence. This has created a row in Pakistan.
Indonesia, Libya Agree on Barter Trade Deal
Indonesia and Lybia have agreed to a barter trade of crude oil for commoditioes and military goods. The deal was signed Sept. 28, during a visit by President Megawati Soekarnoputri to Libya, whose economic prospects have received a major boost since the United Nations earlier this month lifted 15-year-old economic sanctions. The deal covers 5,000 barrels of Libyan crude oil per day, for Indonesian commodities such as building materials, textiles, furniture, and military accessories, according to Indonesian Minister of Industry and Trade Rini Soewandi. Libya has also ordered three patrol boats from PT PAL Indonesia, and are giving consideration to buying a Puma helicopter, an NBO helicopter and also a CN-235 airplane. Indonesia owns aircraft maker PT IPTN in Bandung, and shipbuilder PT PAL in Surabaya.
Relations between the two countries date back to the 1950s when founding President Sukarno, Megawati's father, visited Tripoli. Last year Indonesia opened an embassy in Tripoli.
CIA/Thai Counter-Rerror Operation in Bangkok Revealed
A joint CIA/Thai anti-terror campaign has been established in Bangkok, according to the Wall Street Journal Oct. 1. Called the "Counter Terrorism Intelligence Center, CTIC, the unit combines three Thai agenciesNational Intelligence, Thai Police Intelligence, and Armed Forces Securitywith 20 CIA officials, and $10-20 million in CIA funding. Set up in early 2001, the unit was beefed up after 9/11, and again in recent months, in preparation for the Oct. 20-21 APEC Summit in Bangkok. The unit claims responsibiliity for the capture of Hambali, a leading terrorist controller from Indonesia, in Thailand last August, and several other accused terrorists.
The article's author Shawn Crispin has been involved in several dirty tricks operations against the Thai government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and the intelligence must be taken in that light, although EIR sources in Washington have reported that such an operation does exist. The exposure of the unit by the Journal, however, will make Thailand appear to be subservient to U.S. interests, as indeed the title of the article implies: "U.S. and Thai Agents Collaborate in Secret Cold-War-Style Alliance." The Journal also claims that Thailand allowed itself to be portrayed as "neutral" in the anti-terror effort as part of a "deliberate effort to lure terror plotters to Thai soil," allowing the covert unit to "monitor their movements without raising suspicion." Such a claim will certainly anger Thais and undermine the government.
General Reyes Back in Office in the Philippines
General Angelo Reyes, fired as the Philippines Defense Minister over charges of corruption and complicity in terrorism, was appointed Oct. 1 to a newly created post of Cabinet rank, called "Ambassador at Large for Counter Terrorism." Although President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has taken positve steps recently to cool out the Mindanao crisis, by appointing pro-peace Gen. Eduardo Ermita as the Defense Minister to replace Reyes, who is very close to the Rumsfeld crowd at the Pentagon, and by working with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir on new peace talks with the MILF, she was obviously put under tremendous pressure while in the U.S. to keep Reyes in a position of influence. Reyes is very close to the Rumsfeld crowd at the Pentagon.
Sources tell EIR that the hawks in the Philippine military are not at all happy about "dove" Ermita's appointment as Defense Secretary. Macapagal Arroyo may think she is protecting herself and maintaining a "balance" by giving Reyes the "anti-terror" post, but the primary pressure is certainly from the Pentagon. Reyes will be doing a grand tour of the U.S. in October, visiting Stanford and Harvard Universities, and Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge.
India, China, Maybe Russia, To Sign Friendship Treaty with ASEAN
China, India, and perhaps Russia, will sign a Treaty of Amity with ASEAN, at the ASEAN Summit in Bali, Indonesia Oct. 7-8. It will be the first time foreign powers have adhered to ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC). Russia's signing is awaiting approval from its parliament, ASEAN spokesman M.C. Abad told AFP.
Sundram Pushpanathan, ASEAN's head of external relations, said that by signing, "China and India will come into the inner circle of ASEAN. This reflects the high level of commitment by China and India to the peace and security of the region, and it will pave the way for greater engagements by them in regional political and security matters," he said.
TAC, adopted in 1976, includes renunciation of the threat of use of force, respect among member nations for their sovereignity and territorial integrity, non-interference in each other's affairs, and peaceful settlement of disputes. Under TAC, a High Council is in charge of resolving conflicts among signatories bound by a code of conduct in inter-state relations.
Ultimately, ASEAN wants all of its dialogue partners within the ASEAN Regional Forum, including the U.S., to sign on TAC. However, Mohamed Jawhar Hassan, director general of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia, said the United States was unlikely to adhere to the TAC, saying, "Not only in Southeast Asia but elsewhere, the United States is very hegemonic in its approach and it wants to have freedom to do this and that. So perhaps it feels that submitting to such rules in the region ties its hands up," he said.
Six-Power Nations Urge Security Guarantee for North Korea
Meeting privately in New York Sept. 25, foreign ministers of Russia, South Korea, China, and Japan told U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell that they "want a clear security guarantee for North Korea, in order for the Six Power talks to proceed, which they must," a Korean diplomat told EIR. "This means the U.S. must come up with something new, and something clear," he pointed out, and not just keep repeating unilateral demands for North Korea to disarm.
It was after this that Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the issue personally at his Sept. 27 press conference with Bush, saying that "Russia believes that ensuring a nuclear non-proliferation regime should be accompanied by extending to North Korea guarantees in the sphere of security." China's foreign minister was also reported by the Korean press to have very strongly pressed President Bush on the security guarantee for North Korea in a private New York meeting.
South Korean President Roh also stated Sept. 25 that he can't decide about sending troops to Iraq, while there is no security guarantee for the Korean Peninsula. "Isn't it difficult for the country to accept the dispatch of our troops abroad in such an uncertain situation, as we don't know how the six-way talks will go in the future and what will happen when?" Roh asked a group of reporters on Sept. 24. His office published the comments on the next day. "We need something predictable about stability on the Korean peninsula," he said.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-Kwan, in New York, announced then that "The United States is working on a detailed plan to deal with the North Korean nuclear issue in advance of a second round of six-party talks" to "discuss terminating the North Korea's nuclear weapons program and seek ways to ease North Korea's security concerns and economic hardship together." Yoon criticized "hardline skeptics" in Washington who refuse to deal with Pyongyang, saying that North Korea was more engaged with the world during the Cold War, than it is now, thanks to negative pressure which "most likely strengthened the will of North Korea to become a nuclear power."
Korean North-South Economic Development Must Continue
South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-Hyun, the only holdover in President Roh Moo-hyung's cabinet from the Kim Dae-jung regime, said in remarks on Sept. 25, that economic cooperation must proceed while the nuclear issue is being discussed. This viewpoint has been under major attack in Washington since the U.S. broke relations with Pyongyang in October 2002. "Settlement of North Korea's nuclear issue and inter-Korean economic cooperation should progress hand-in-hand," Jeong told a cabinet meeting, as economic cooperation creates the mutual trust necessary to deal with nuclear issues.
At a Presidential advisory panel, Jeong even stressed that equal treatment should be given to the infrastructure of the North Korean industrial complex at Kaesong as is given to South Korean industrial parks, to raise the Kaesong complex's international competitiveness. The South Korean government, as a policy, builds all infrastructure, such as water supply and sewage systems, at no cost at industrial parks in the South to lessen the burden on local firms.
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