Asia News Digest
Mahathir: UN Must Force Withdrawal from Iraq; Annan Should Resign
Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad of Malaysia ridiculed U.S.-British talk of "rebuilding Iraq," and demanded that the United Nations act to force a withdrawal of the U.S.-led coalition, the New Straits Times reported March 25. Mahathir also called for Kofi Annan to resign as UN Secretary General. The Malaysian Prime Minister, who cut short his annual two-month vacation to take national and international leadership in the resistance to U.S. unilateralism, told a press conference at the Parliament that, "rather than being futuristic by discussing the rebuilding of Iraq after the ongoing destruction, the UN should be realistic and practical in addressing the demise of international law and the suffering of innocent Iraqis."
As to Annan, Mahathir said he should resign for having failed to stop the aggression against Iraq, adding that "the problem with the Secretary General [is that] he is not a free agent, he is very much subject to pressure, and therefore, whatever he says is not reflective of the opinion of the UN."
U.S. Threatens Non-Aligned: Emergency UNGA Session Would Be 'Unhelpful'
The United States has issued a threatening letter to the nations in the Non-Alligned Movement and others, warning against any call for an emergency UN General Assembly session as "unhelpful," and as a move "directed against the United States." Several countries of the Non-Aligned Movement, led prominently by Indonesia, are demanding activation of UN Resolution 377, "Uniting for Peace," which allows for the convening of an emergency General Assembly session, whenever the "Security Council has failed to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, because of the lack of unanimity of the permanent members."
According to IPS, the letter tells the nations that, as long as the Security Council remains "seized" on the matter, the General Assembly has no voice, and must refrain from taking action.
IPS quotes from the U.S. letter: "We urge you to oppose such a session, and either to vote against or abstain, if the matter is brought to a vote.... [A] GA session could also further reinforce Iraq's belief that it has divided the international community, and is under no obligation to comply with SC resolutions. Finally, we are concerned that the staging of such a divisive session could do additional harm to the UN."
A second possibility for convening an emergency session of the UN, is for the Standing Emergency Session on the Mideast Crisis to be reconvened. The IPS wire also stated (as was confirmed by the UN spokesman for the Secretary General) that an emergency GA session under Resolution 377 was called in 1997, has met several times, the last time being in August 2002, and is still open. Thus, any nation can reopen that session, which can then move on the Iraq issue.
President Bush Courts India for Help in Iraq War
"The U.S. President George Bush has spoken to me three times, saying that India must help the USA, as Saddam Hussein had left him with no option but to go for the attack," revealed Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, according to the Hindustan Times of New Delhi.
Vajpayee said he told Bush that war was not a solution to any problem, and so could not help. Hoping the conflict would end soon, Vajpayee said: "I have written to the heads of many countries including China, Russia, France, and the U.S.A., as we are very seriously concerned with this war, which goes against the United Nations." Vajpayee also told the Hindustan Times that there was no need for "harsh words," although Delhi opposed the war.
The Prime Minister did not say what kind of assistance the United States was seeking from India. In the 1991 Gulf War, India had allowed the United States to refuel planes in its territory.
North Korea Suspends Talks with South on War Threat
Park Chang-ryon, chairman of North Korea's Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation Committee, issued a statement March 22 that Pyongyang had cancelled economic cooperation and maritime talks with South Korea, scheduled for March 26-28. The talks were to have opened train service on the Trans-Korean Railroad; but that is now stalled again. Park accused Seoul of "pointing a sword" at the North, after the South raised its military alert level March 21, due to the war in Iraq. Park also referred to the enormous U.S.-ROK joint military exercises for which stealth bombers and the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson were moved from San Diego, Calif. to Korea for the first timeall simulating an invasion of North Korea on a beach in the South.
Seoul sources said the cancellation was quite serious, and occurred for other reasons. "Talks in fact collapsed due to two events which Pyongyang reads as an attack on cooperation, under pressure from Washington," one Roh official said. First, the North is "highly distressed" by South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's decision to send 700 troops to Iraq, "and what that implies for the ability of extremists in Washington to get what they want" from the South.
Second, he noted, South Korea's just-retired President Kim Dae-jung is about to be indicted in an insane "scandal," charging that Kim's government illegally gave Hyundai Corp. $500 million which was used to "bribe" North Korea into holding the landmark June 2000 Inter-Korean Summit, resulting in Kim's winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Kim is being charged with illegally using taxpayers' funds to buy his Nobel Prize. Such a trial could paralyze South Korea.
"To the North, this investigation has come as more of a shock than Seoul's decision to dispatch troops," another official said. "It means a fundamental attack on North-South cooperation is to be blown up by the South Korean media." Such an attack on President Kim would clearly be another U.S. Chickenhawk operation.
President Roh Tries To Reassure South Korea that U.S. Will Not Invade North
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said that the United States has assured him that it will not invade North Korea, the Korea Herald wrote March 24. There is talk at home and abroad that North Korea may be the next target for the U.S. war campaign, but "responsible U.S. officials have not raised any such possibilities," Roh said to his advisers, according to his spokesman Song Kyoung-hee. Roh continued: "We should respect the opinions of responsible U.S. officials that North Korea is different from Iraq, and the nuclear issue should be resolved through peaceful means."
While Roh is trying to speed up North-South cooperation projects, he also has called on the National Assembly to vote to send non-combat troops to Iraq, although there is mounting anti-war sentiment in the country, and the North reads this as the South's capitulation to the U.S. policy of unilateral wars.
Iraq War Produces Tension on Korean Peninsula
"Tensions Running High on Korean Peninsula with War in Iraq," noted the Los Angeles Times headline March 24, saying that both South and North Korea "are closely watching the situation in Iraq, concerned that the Bush Administration might target North Korea next. People on both sides of the border believe that toppling of Saddam Hussein will embolden hard-liners in the Bush Administration to go after North Korea," they write. United Nations Special Envoy Maurice Strong, who visited Pyongyang last week, told reporters March 23 in Beijing, that the North Koreans are watching the war in Iraq "very carefully and with deep concern, and questioning what this means in terms of the U.S.'s ultimate intentions toward them."
Korean Youth Movement Opposes Roh's Support for Iraq War
"Nosamo" ("we love Roh"), the main youth-movement group which elected South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, announced March 24 that almost all of its 82,000 members are against the President's decision to send 700 Korean troops to Iraq. A poll taken by their website, one of the most publicized in Korea, showed an overwhelmingly majority against the war.
"An internal Blue House survey showed 80% of South Koreans oppose the U.S.-led strike on Iraq," said an official close to Roh. "No one believes it when Roh says that we must cooperate with Washington's requests regarding Iraq, in order to hold Washington to its promise not to attack North Korea," a Nosamo representative told the Korea Times. "Everyone, including in Pyongyang, now believes that Roh is doing this simply because he's been told that otherwise, Rumsfeld will follow up on his threat to withdraw the troops, and then Washington will believe that the field is wide open for a U.S. strike against North Korea." That is, Roh is being told to follow orders "or else."
Demonstrations at South Korean Parliament Block Troops to Iraq
The Seoul National Assembly, at the last minute, postponed a vote on President Roh Moo-hyun's dispatch of 700 Korean "non-combat" construction and medical troops to the war zone in Iraq March 25, after thousands of activists staged a protest rally in the plaza in front of the Parliament building.
Protesters attempted to rush the main building, causing riot police to be called in. A host of civic organizations warned that lawmakers voting for the motion will face fierce rejection campaigns during elections next year. The influential Korean Bar Association ruled the war on Iraq illegal, and South Korea's two main umbrella labor groups, with more than 1.6 million members, threatened a general strike, if the assembly approves troops.
Even the opposition Grand National Party, which is closely connected to the warhawks at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, and which controls 65% of the seats in the National Assembly, is turning against the troop deployment. "Our party cannot go and take the blame for sending troops alone," GNP spokesman Suh Myong-rim said. "If we send troops there, South Korea would be recorded as a war criminal in history," said GNP parliamentarian Kim Hong-shin. Lawmakers from both parties issued a rare joint statement, threatening a filibuster to stop the bill. At this point the chairman of both parties agreed to put the motion back to April 2, when President Roh Moo-hyun is to address the Assemblyso the troops are not going anywhere for now.
U.S. Ambassador Draws Fire Comparing Saddam to Marcos
U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Francis Ricciardone betrayed his cultural and historical ignorance, proclaiming in a televised interview that the intent to bring about "regime change" in Iraq is just like the ouster of former President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
While the U.S. was principally responsible for ousting Marcos in 1986, the cultural/political lore of the Philippinesthat the power that dumped Marcos was "People Power," the EDSA I revolution, and those who have assumed that mantleexploded against Ricciardone's remarks, led by Sen. Joker Arroyo, former Executive Secretary to President Corazon Aquino, who succeeded Marcos.
Marcos' daughter, Congresswoman Imee Marcos, issued a thank-you to Ricciardone, saying: "Thank you, Ambassador Ricciardone, for confirming our worst suspicions of American intervention in the Philippines and other small sovereign states."
China Initiates 14 New Infrastructure Project in Western Regions
The Chinese government has decided to launch an additional 14 key infrastructure projects in the western regions of the country, an official told the China Daily March 25. The total investment involved will be more than 130 billion yuan (U.S. $15.7 billion).
Projects include construction of roads, railways, power stations, water and land management, forestry, anti-desertification projects, and urban infrastructure. The Leading Group for Western Regional Development, the national group responsible for economic development of the China's 12 western provinces and regions, said, "We aim to make a breakthrough with regard to the infrastructure situation in the region by 2010."
Over the past three years, 36 projects have been under construction, with 270 billion yuan (U.S. $32.5 billion) invested. While there has been real progress since the "Develop the West" campaign was begun in 1999, the western regions still lag behind eastern China economically. Therefore, Beijing will further strengthen support of the region with advantageous tax policies and transfers of funds.
Arab Nations Urge Japan To Press U.S. To End War
Tokyo Ambassadors of 16 Arab nations, plus Iran and Indonesia, on March 25 urged Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi to make efforts "to achieve an immediate end to the U.S.-led war on Iraq," Japanese Ministry officials said. An Arab diplomat was quoted as telling Kawaguchi in a meeting that Arab nations strongly hope the "tragedy" will come to an immediate end, and that Japan should cooperate with the international community toward that goal.
Such pressure on Japan "indicates that Arab states may be thinking of using their oil weapon, one Tokyo source said." Kawaguchi told the envoys that Japan supports the use of force to disarm Iraq, but expressed hope it will be a quick war with a minimum number of casualties, the officials said. The request by the Arab nations follows a resolution adopted at a March 24 meeting in Cairo by Arab League ministers, which declared the war on Iraq a violation of the UN Charter, and demanded the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of U.S. and British forces.
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