Asia News Digest
Chinese Railway Workers Killed in Afghanistan
About 20 armed men stormed into a compound housing Chinese workers on the night of June 9, in Kunduz province, about 250 km north of Kabul, Afghanistan, and opened fire, killing 11 of them. The Chinese workers are employed by the China Railway Construction Shisiju Group Corp., and were sleeping at the time of attack. Chinese President Hu Jintao has condemned the slaying as "inhuman," but said it would not halt his country's participation in the reconstruction of war-torn Afghanistan. This is the first attack reported on the Chinese workers in Afghanistan.
Afghan interim President Hamid Karzai, who was visiting the United States at the time of the killing, called it an act of enemies of Afghanistan. However, the location of the killing raises the question: Who were these enemies? The Taliban denied responsibility, explaining that China is not a target of their anger, since that nation has not sent troops to Afghanistan in support of the United States or Hamid Karzai.
On the other hand, Kunduz had long been the stronghold of the Northern Alliance, and of the Uzbek-Afghan warlord Abdur Rashid Dostum, in particular. It was in Kunduz that Dostum had slaughtered about 800 Pushtuns, suspected to be Taliban, in the winter of 2001.
In addition, areas surrounding Kunduz have been projected as among the most stable areas in Afghanistan, with the pro-Taliban militants more active in southern and central Afghanistan. Kunduz is the only city in Afghanistan where the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has deployed peacekeepers outside Kabul.
Pakistan Faces Bloody Summer, as September Elections Approach
As Afghanistan's interim President Hamid Karzai, under intense pressure from the Bush Administration, continues with preparations for the Presidential and Parliamentary elections in September, anti-U.S and anti-Kabul militants, represented by the Taliban, al-Qaeda, foreign mercenaries from Uzbekistan, Chechnya, Dagestan, China's Xinjiang province, and various militant Islamic groups within Pakistan, have chosen to intensify violent activities to stop the elections.
On June 10, Lt. Gen. Ahsan Saleem Hayat, army commander of Karachi and a senior Pakistani General, was the target of an assassination attempt by the militants. Armed gunmen moved into the army convoy carrying the general, and killed seven bodyguards and three Karachi policemen accompanying the convoy. Karachi is now wholly unstable and virtually at the mercy of the militants. In the month of May alone, at least 65 people have been killed in Karachi in terrorist acts. According to Pakistani intelligence reports, the militants are now getting ready to start a bloody campaign in Peshawar, the city that borders Afghanistan.
The Peshawar operation will most likely be run by those militants who are now engaged in battles against Pakistani troops in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), bordering Afghanistan. In a battle which lasted more than two days (June 9-10), foreign mercenaries from Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Dagestan, and China's Xinjiang province, along with the local tribesmen, inflicted heavy casualties on Islamabad regular troops, in the tribal agency of South Waziristan, near the town of Wana. Reports indicate that at least 35 Pakistani soldiers were killed. At the same time, it is evident that the Pakistani troops have not succeeded in weakening the militant stronghold. There is a great deal of concern now in Pakistan that if the troops fail to eliminate the militants, the militants will hit back in these cities with violent terrorist attacks.
Bush Is 'Miscalculating' on Iraq Says China Daily
Bush has "miscalculated again," by meshing the theme of this century's war on terrorism and the last century's crusade against Nazism, in his remarks at the 60th anniversary D-Day commemorations in France, China Daily wrote June 7. Bush's error was in attempting to reassure the world that the campaign in Iraq was worthy of the U.S mission, and that the terrible toll of rebuilding the war-torn country is a necessary price to pay, the paper said.
The war in Iraq that the United States is waging is so drastically different from World War II that the parallels Bush has dredged up underline his ignorance of history, and a poorly disguised intent to confuse the public, the Daily said.
The Daily pointed out that, rather than addressing the post-Iraq war debacle, including the continuing violence, the scandal over prisoner abuse, and the growing pressure on an already overstretched military, Bush says: "We will not retreat. We will prevent the emergence of terrorist-controlled states. The whole world is better off with Saddam Hussein sitting in a prison cell."
Brits Warn of Terrorist Threats in Philippines
Britain has warned again of persistent terrorist threats and high political tensions in the Philippines, as canvassing of votes in Presidential elections drags on, the Philippine Daily Tribune reported June 10. "Political tension surrounding the May 10 national elections is likely to continue through the vote-counting period," the latest British travel advisory said. "Philippine authorities are on high alert in case of political unrest and security incidents, and have issued warnings about suspected bomb threats in Manila and elsewhere," the advisory added. Similar warnings were issued by the Australian government.
The warnings are disputed by the Philippine government.
Odd Group Invited To Speak on China's 'Five Principles'
A very strange combination of international figures has been invited to speak at an international seminar on the 50th anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, on June 14-15, the Peoples Daily reported June 10. The seminar is hosted by the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIEA), an organization founded in 1949 by Zhou Enlai.
Former Indian President K.R. Narayanan and former Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen will keynote the seminar. Other speakers include former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, former UN Secretary General Butros Butros-Ghali and former U.S. Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz.
The two Americans and Hawke, a strong proponent of free trade, could hardly be less appropriate to such a gathering. The Five Principles launched by China, India, and Myanmar in 1954, are mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity; mutual non-aggression; non-interference in each other's internal affairs; equality and mutual benefit; and peaceful coexistence.
Malaysian Foreign Minister To Lead OIC Delegation to U.S.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar is expected to lead a delegation of foreign ministers form the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to meet U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington in July, to present the OIC's stance on the issue of Palestine, the Malaysia Star reported June 9. The meeting will complete the OIC's mission to meet with all members of the international Quartetthe U.S.A., Russia, the EU, and the United Nationsinvolved in the "Road Map."
Syed Hamid said the meeting with the United States was delayed due to overlapping appointments during the delegation's last visit to New York to meet UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
He said the meeting will allow the OIC to present the Muslims' views on the issue, and provide constructive suggestions on the way forward for the peace plan, adding that the conflict in Palestine was one of the root causes of extremism and must be tackled.
Singapore PM Blasts Bush Admin. on Israel-Palestine Policy
In an unusual break with protocol, Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, in his keynote speech June 4 to the 3rd International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) Asia Security Conference, said bluntly: "The Middle East is also where U.S friends and allies are most disquieted by America's seemingly unconditional support for Israel. I know this is a delicate issue. I know that whatever the criticism of its policies, the U.S. plays an irreplaceable role in stabilizing the Middle East. But this is too important an issue to dress in diplomatic niceties. The U.S. is essential to the solution, but is also a part of the problem," Tong stated to the conference, held in Singapore.
"A more balanced and nuanced approach towards the Israeli-Palestine conflictthat recognizes that there are equities and inequities on both sidesmust become a central pillar of the global war against terrorism," he continued. "Given the post-Cold War geopolitical battle against terrorism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is no longer just a regional problem. The Islamic terrorists know this. They have exploited this conflict to win sympathy and recruits for their own cause.
"The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a rallying cause of terrorism. We know that a solution to it will not end terrorism, given the ideologically driven motivations of the al-Qaeda terrorists. But the discomfort that mainstream Muslims around the world feel with America's Middle East policies limits their ability to fight the ideological battle. Even the Europeans and other friends of the U.S. will be constrained to support the U.S. in the fight against the terrorists. This weakens the U.S.-led geopolitical struggle against terrorism," he concluded.
No Proof Khan's Nuclear Black Market Dismantled
There is no proof that A.Q. Khan's nuclear black market has been dismantled, Therese Delpech, a French expert on nuclear non-proliferation issues told the London-based IISS Asia Security Conference in Singapore on June 5. Notwithstanding U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's speech at the first plenary session, Delpech, an IISS member, said: "There is, in my view, no assurance that the network is fully dismantled," noting that the "network of nuclear trafficking has been operating for at least 15 years." Citing two factors to contradict Rumsfeld, Delpech said: "The United States has no direct access to A.Q. Khan." The American authorities had posed questions which passed through the "filter" of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) establishment before reaching Khan. The answers, too, she pointed out, were "filtered again." Moreover, Delpech added, the network "has been used by Pakistan to export goods, equipment, and even designs (relating to nuclear weapons), as well as to get technologies needed for its own program.
'Singapore Issues' Challenge Global Trade Talks
Global trade talks will founder, if the developed nations refuse to drop three of the four so-called Singapore issues, when the WTO talks resume next July, warned Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz. Aziz was addressing a trade ministers' meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum which concluded at the Chilean resort town of Pucon on June 7.
"It is wise for everybody to learn the lessons of Cancun," Rafidah Aziz said, referring to the deadlock of talks in the Mexican city of Cancun last September. Developing nations opposed addressing the four Singapore issues in Cancun, saying they were not prepared for what some termed "radical trade liberalization." The four contended issues are: trade facilitation; cross-border investments; cross-border competition; and transparency in government procurement.
The United States, Japan, and South Korea, all of whom had campaigned earlier for inclusion of all four Singapore issues, issued a joint statement on June 5 in which they accepted the trade facilitation as the only Singapore issue in the upcoming WTO talks.
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