In this issue:

Strategy of Tension Hits Indonesia

Chinese To Visit Pyongyang To Rescue Six-Party Talks

Korean President To Visit Russia; Energy a Top Item

Anwar Ibrahim Wins His Appeal in Malaysia

Malaysia's Supreme Court To Review Anwar's Conviction

ASEM Meeting To Proceed with Myanmar's Participation

U.S. Ambassador Pressures Manila To Send Workers to Iraq

China To Build 30 New Nuclear Reactors

China May Join Thailand in Building Dams in Myanmar

From Volume 3, Issue Number 37 of EIR Online, Published Sep. 14, 2004
Asia News Digest

Strategy of Tension Hits Indonesia

Exactly one month before the crucial Australian elections, a massive car bomb exploded outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta. Australia's neocon cheerleader Prime Minister John Howard has called early elections for Oct. 9, elections which could have waited until the spring—Howard clearly didn't want the election to follow the possible crushing defeat of his mentor, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. The Australian election thus becomes the first-round test of the Iraq chickenhawks. Now, two days after Cheney virtually threatened to launch a terror-raid on the U.S. if Democrat John Kerry wins the Presidential election Nov. 2 (or is likely to win), Howard has a made-to-order issue to strengthen his campaign against LaRouche's allies and the Labor Party opposition, which has called for removing Australian troops from Iraq.

The U.S. had issued a warning on Sept. 7, the same day as Cheney's threat, that Jemaah Islamiyah (the name applied to the loose structure of terrorists in Southeast Asia) may be planning an attack in Indonesia against U.S. or Australian targets.

The powerful car bomb exploded in front of the embassy at 10:30 a.m. in Jakarta, killing at least nine Indonesians and injuring over 160. The embassy itself was well fortified and received little damage, other than the impact on the steel wall in front, but buildings in the area were badly damaged. President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who is also in the final days of a run-off election for President of Indonesia on Sept. 20, against former General Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), returned early from her trip to Brunei to attend to the disaster. Howard called her from Australia, and sent Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, the intelligence and Federal police chiefs, and nine bomb experts to Jakarta. Everyone is simply asserting that it is the work of the Jemaah Islamiyah, and of its two most wanted members—Malaysians Dr. Azahari Husin and Nurdin Mohammed Top—who are suspected of running the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta last year, and the Bali bombing two years ago.

The Financial Review of Australia said the bombing "has placed national security at the center of the Federal election campaign, with PM John Howard vowing the country will not be intimidated by terrorists."

Both Howard and Labor Party candidate Mark Latham announced they had suspended campaigning until Sunday. Labor Party shadow Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd went to Indonesia with Downer.

Chinese To Visit Pyongyang To Rescue Six-Party Talks

In a last-ditch effort to keep negotiations on track, a high-level Chinese delegation will propose Sept. 22 as the date for the fourth round of six-party talks, at a three-day visit to Pyongyang starting Sept. 10. The delegation is led by Li Changchun of the Communist Party Politburo, South Korean Foreign Ministry officials said Sept. 6. "After Li's visit to Pyongyang, we will be able to see more clearly if another round of talks can be held."

North Korea has said it sees no point in talking about its nuclear programs until the United States drops its "hostile policy." South Korea, the United States, and Japan are to coordinate positions on the nuclear negotiations later this week. Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck will meet with his Japanese counterpart Mitoji Yabunaka and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly for two days of talks from Sept. 9. Six-power meetings were originally scheduled last month, but Pyongyang is attempting to delay negotiations, hoping that President George W. Bush is voted out.

Pyongyang's irritation increased with passage last month by the U.S. House of Representatives of the North Korean Human Rights Act, which is coordinated by people seeking to collapse the Pyongyang regime now, by sparking a mass exodus of North Korean refugees into China. The North also blasted South Korea for bringing 460 North Korean refugees to Seoul last month. The North's nervousness is expected to reach a high pitch in late October, when warships of the U.S. Navy, the Japanese Coast Guard, and others conduct exercises in the Sea of Japan under the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) to interdict sea born illicit cargoes from an unnamed country. "The hardliners will use PSI. The military will say, 'I told you so, they plan to attack us,'" Clinton Administration Korea expert Kenneth Quinones said.

Korean President To Visit Russia; Energy a Top Item

Republic of Korea President Roh Moo-hyun will make a four-day visit to Moscow, beginning Sept. 20, for summit talks with President Vladimir Putin, on North Korea's nuclear program and Russia's role in finding a peaceful solution. Roh's visit is to solidify bilateral relations while pushing ahead with the six-party talks, the Seoul Foreign Ministry said. They added that, based on results of the multilateral talks, the two nations will continue to closely cooperate in efforts for the envisioned formation of a security forum in Northeast Asia in the near future.

Officials said they will exchange views on the means of expanding bilateral economic cooperation, especially in the area of oil and natural gas, and the construction of a Trans-Siberian railway (TSR) and a Trans-Korean railway (TKR). The Seoul government has been pushing for the TSR and TKR projects as part of a plan to develop Korea as an economic hub for Northeast Asia. Some 50 business leaders will accompany Roh, including Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, Hyundai Automotive chairman Chung Mong-koo, LG chairman Koo Bon-moo, and five major economic organizations.

Anwar Ibrahim Wins His Appeal in Malaysia

Malaysia's former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim won his final appeal Sept. 2 and was released, after serving nearly six years in prison. His case dates back to his attempt in 1998 to overthrow former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, and his opposition to Mahathir's successful effort to defend the Malaysian currency in the Asian economic collapse of 1997-98.

At the time, Dr. Mahathir was uniquely successful in protecting his nation by slapping on currency controls and reining speculators. Mahathir was attacked by then-Vice President Al Gore, during a visit to the APEC meeting in Kuala Lumpur. At the time, Anwar led street demos against the controls.

While some claim the announcement of Anwar's victory is a surprise, it were better to see this as a confirmation of the smooth transition from Dr. Mahathir to his successor, current Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmed Badawi, who has played a crucial role in unifying the country after those events.

Malaysia's Supreme Court To Review Anwar's Conviction

Following the overturning of Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy conviction (see above), Malaysia's highest court announced Sept. 7 that it will also review the corruption conviction of the former Deputy Premier, which, if overturned, would open the door to his immediate return to politics in Malaysia. Government lawyers opposed the application, arguing the Federal court's decisions should be final and not open to endless review.

Anwar has already served the sentence for corruption, which alleged he abused his power to cover up allegations of sexual misconduct. But he is barred from entering politics until 2008 unless the conviction is overturned.

ASEM Meeting To Proceed with Myanmar's Participation

The European Union has agreed to Myanmar's participation in the ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) Summit to be held in Hanoi on Oct. 8-9, Agence France Presse reported Sept. 4. The deal was arranged under the leadership of Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, who is the current chairman of the European Union. It is anticipated that Myanmar will be represented by officials below head-of-state level. EU Foreign Ministers agreed to the deal when it was clear that the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) governments would refuse to attend, as long as the EU insisted that Myanmar could not participate, even though the new members of the EU would be attending. However, the EU threatened to tighten sanctions on the military regime in Myanmar, including extending a visa ban and cutting funds, if it had not made progress on meeting key demands before the summit. The French government has not agreed to imposing the new sanctions.

Even as the EU ministers met, Myanmar authorities accused their chief European critic, Britain, of a negative approach towards the row. "It is unfortunate that London continues to ignore not only Yangon's and ASEAN's call but its own European partners to examine the effectiveness of imposing self-defeating policies," the military junta said in a statement.

U.S. Ambassador Pressures Manila To Send Workers to Iraq

Only 24 hours after 12 Nepalese cooks and cleaners working in Iraq were decapitated by Iraqi guerrillas, U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Francis Ricciardone on Sept. 1 again requested that the Philippines reconsider its ban on its citizens working in Iraq, which ban was imposed after the kidnapping of a Filipino truck driver who was held hostage, and was ultimately released, the Manila Times reported.

Insisting that the U.S. "was not making any demands" on Philippines foreign policy, Ricciardone pointed to 4,000 Filipino workers in Iraq who were contributing to rebuilding Iraq, and his government hoped that "others will be allowed to join them." His appeal was carried on the most important TV network in the Philippines, ABS-CBN TV, where the ambassador said: "A suggestion is then, if the government could take a careful look at relaxing that ban in very specific circumstances," adding, "There are no guarantees [of safety], of course, in going to Iraq."[!]

China To Build 30 New Nuclear Reactors

China plans to build 30 new reactors by 2020, and to have its own version of the pebble-bed High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTR) on line by 2010, reported Wired magazine Sept. 12, in an article titled, "Let a Thousand Reactors Bloom." The Chinese know that even that won't be enough power to meet the nation's energy needs of 300 gigawatts of nuclear output (50 times their current amount).

China's dual strategy is to go with conventional nuclear plant designs, using established technology, at the same time that it forges ahead with the pebble-bed reactor. Wired magazine interviewed scientist Qian Jihui, who is the director emeritus of Tsinghua University Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, on the need for the fourth-generation nuclear plants. The article lauds the special characteristics of the HTR: meltdown-proof, direct energy conversion (no steam cycle), modular construction, and inherent "walk-away" safety (the reactor shuts down on its own, if there is a problem).

Also discussed is the history of the "inherently safe" reactor concept, from the Manhattan Project's Farrington Daniels and Edward Teller, to Rudolf Schulten in Germany. (Some of the reactor team studied with Schulten.) The joint venture company Chinergy, run by Tsinghua University and the state-owned China Nuclear Engineering group, intends to build a full-scale 200-MW pebble-bed by 2010. Half of the financing is to come from China's Huaneng Power International, which is chaired by the son of former premier Li Peng. The Chinese also intend to use the pebble-bed concept, for efficiently producing hydrogen.

China May Join Thailand in Building Dams in Myanmar

The Thai government is considering inviting China to jointly invest in hydroelectric power plant projects in Myanmar, following an agreement reached with Myanmar to coordinate a series of hydroelectric dams in the country, Business Day reported Aug. 27. The energy ministries of both Thailand and Myanmar had earlier agreed in principle to co-invest in five hydroelectric dams on the Salawin River and other rivers in the areas bordering the two countries, including a 4,000-MW dam on the upper Salawin, a 900-MW lower Salawin Dam, a 7,000-MW Tha Sang Dam in the upper part of Thailand's Mae Hong Son province, a 600-MW Hudji Dam in Thailand's Mae Sod district in Tak province, and a 600-MW Tanowsri Dam. The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) projects that these five hydroelectric dam projects will need a combined investment capital of 2.3 billion baht.

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