In this issue:

Australian PM Candidate Hits Preemption, as Election Nears

U.S. Ambassador Warns of a Afghan 'Tet Offensive'

General Yudhoyuono Wins Philippines Presidential Vote

Fitch Threatens Philippines: Impose Austerity, or Else

Putin, Roh sign Multibillion-Dollar Trade Package

U.S. Senator Demands U.S. Sanctions vs. Myanmar

From Volume 3, Issue Number 39 of EIR Online, Published Sep. 28, 2004
Asia News Digest

Australian PM Candidate Hits Preemption, as Election Nears

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has been forced to clumsily defend, and then back away from, the doctrine of preemptive military strikes, following a spirited attack from his opponent Mark Latham of the Labor Party. On Sept. 19, Latham was asked a question designed to make him look weak on national security: "If you knew—if you knew that, say Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists in a neighboring country were planning an attack on Australia, would you as Prime Minister be prepared to act preemptively to stop them?" He replied, "We've rejected Mr. Howard's notion of preemption. Extended preemption. You need to do things in cooperation with our neighbours. There's obviously sovereignty issues involved in that question."

Howard immediately seized on Latham's reply, to claim that he was much tougher on national security, because he, Howard, would act preemptively. Howard's statement sparked a wave of nervousness in Australia's Southeast Asian neighbors, such that Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was forced to qualify the Howard statement, by saying that preemption would only be used against failed states in the Pacific. Howard, however, said that he would attack terrorist camps in Southeast Asia.

Before Latham became Labor leader during the Iraq war, he sparked a diplomatic incident between the party and the U.S. embassy, when he called George W. Bush the "most dangerous President in history." He has insisted that he will pull Australian troops out of Iraq, if elected.

U.S. Ambassador Warns of a Afghan 'Tet Offensive'

Ambassador Kalmay Khalilzad, a close friend of Washington's neo-con cabal, said Sept. 20 that he expected a particular challenge from militants along Afghanistan's porous border with Pakistan to the south and east, but also that dramatic violence was a possibility in the Afghan cities, including Kabul.

Home Minister Al Ahmad Jalili told a press conference that the security situation in Afghanistan is rapidly deteriorating. Reports pouring in from various sources indicate that leaders of al-Qaeda and the Taliban under Mullah Mohammad Omar have held a series of meetings in Pakistan to discuss how to disrupt Afghanistan's elections. In anticipation of the al-Qaeda attacks, all leading rivals to the Afghan Interim President Hamid Karzai, have asked for postponement of elections for at least a month.

Karzai, instead of campaigning for the elections, travelled to the U.S. to speak at the UN General Assembly, and to discuss strategies with President Bush and others. His first and only attempt to campaign outside of Kabul almost met with disaster last week, when his helicopter was attacked by rebel missiles. Karzai's security men turned the helicopter back to Kabul, possibly ending Karzai's chances for election.

General Yudhoyuono Wins Philippines Presidential Vote

Former Gen. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyuono soundly defeated President Megawati Sukarnoputri in the run-off election Sept. 29 for President of Indonesia.

General Yudhoyono, known as SBY, won over 60% in the still incomplete count—the first election which used a direct vote for the President, rather than for the party. The vote is a run-off from the July election in which Yudhoyuono and Megawati finished first and second, neither winning 50% at that time.

Yudhoyuono served as Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security under President Megawati (one of two powerful Coordinating Ministers, the other being for economics), leaving the post to run for President last year. He formed his own party, which did not fare so well in the parliamentary elections, but he swept the Presidential election based on his own reputation, and a generally unenthusiastic sense of Megawati's leadership over the past three years.

Yudhoyuono rose to the position of general under President Suharto in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. He was twice in the U.S.: one year at Fort Benning, Ga. in 1976; and one year in 1990 at the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

SBY and his running mate Yusuf Kalla, a member of former Suharto's Golkar Party, are not expected to change policies in any dramatic way.

Fitch Threatens Philippines: Impose Austerity, or Else

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who has thus far followed the IMF script on economic policies, has asked the Congress to pass a package of tax measures, which will raise annual government revenues by $1.42 billion, and other austerity policies, warning that the country risks a debt default otherwise.

Anglo-American enforcer Fitch Rating's senior director for sovereign ratings, Brian Coulton, said on Sept. 20 that if Manila fails to pass these proposed measures, "I think there would be material implications to the ratings outlook." He said that Philippines' sovereign BB rating, already two notches below investment grade, was "predicated on expectations that this package is put in place." Coulton shamelessly displayed his thug tactics in a Sept. 20 Manila TV interview: "There would be a major shock to market expectations," if Congress failed to pass the revenue measures. "There's a strong element of urgency here. We need to see a good number of these taxes put in place and actually passed within the next couple of months."

A ratings downgrade would raise borrowing costs for the government, which relies on borrowing to pay the unpayable deficit.

Putin, Roh sign Multibillion-Dollar Trade Package

Meeting in a Moscow Summit Sept. 21-22, Russian President Vladimir Putin and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun agreed to strengthen ties, to build a 'Comprehensive Partnership,' and stressed commitment to six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program.

Russia called on North Korea to resume talks, but Roh predicted that this were unlikely before the U.S. election Nov. 2. "The U.S. totally changed its North Korean policy after the last Presidential election, although they had nearly solved the problem under the Clinton Administration," Roh told Korean reporters. "It is natural that no one would dare to step forward, given the murky situation regarding the U.S. Presidential election," he said. Roh said other factors blocking progress include U.S. leaders' "negative" view of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Bush last month criticized Kim for dictatorial, heavy-handed rule while starving his people.

Putin and Roh, along with top business leaders from both countries, signed contracts in a number of sectors that the Russian leader valued at over $4 billion, including an investment of $2.6 billion, by the South Korean firm LG International Corp., in a petrochemical and oil refining complex in Tatarstan. Korea's Samsung said it would invest $500 million in a 10-year project for modernizing an oil refinery in the far eastern Khabarovsk. Eighty percent of the oil refined will remain in Russia while 20% would be exported to South Korea, China and Japan.

In their declaration, the two leaders pledged to "activate" work on linking Russia's Trans-Siberian railway to the Trans-Korean system that passes through North Korea, but this seems impractical for now, given the other developments reported here. The two sides also signed an accord for Russia to train and launch South Korea's first cosmonaut into space, and for Russia to provide assistance to South Korea for the development of its own space program.

U.S. Senator Demands U.S. Sanctions vs. Myanmar

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) introduced a resolution Sept. 20, urging the UN Security Council to immediately consider and take action to sanction Myanmar, claiming the need to "take appropriate actions to respond to the growing threat which Myanmar's ruling body, the State Peace and Development Council, poses to its immediate neighbors and the entire region."

The ultra-conservative Senator offered a litany of alleged crimes—from the spread of HIV/AIDS, to narcotics trafficking by ethnic minorities, to charges that Myanmar is seeking to purchase weapons from North Korea, China, and Russia—and zeroes in on the continued detention of National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. McConnell follows with a nasty attack on at least three European Union states—France, Spain, and Portugal—for supporting Myanmar's participation in the upcoming Oct. 8-9 Asian Europe (ASEM) meeting in Hanoi.

Supporting McConnell's rant: Senators Feinstein, McCain, Mikulski, Feingold, Leahy, and Dole.

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