In this issue:

Mekong Development Discussed in Washington

Mekong-Ganga Cooperation Progresses

CFR Task Force: More U.S. Involvement Needed in Afghanistan.

Tribal Agency Will Fight Pakistani-U.S. Troops

Taliban Kills 24 Afghan Troops

Manila-MILF Talks May Begin Again

Pressure Builds on Myanmar To Release Aung San Suu Kyi

Detained Myanmar Opposition Leader Meets Red Cross

Asian Bond Fund Established in Chiang Mai

ASEAN To Set Up Integrated Energy Grid

India To Join Anti-Drug Alliance

From Volume 2, Issue Number 26 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published July 1, 2003
Asia News Digest

Mekong Development Discussed in Washington

The first public forum on the development of the Mekong River Basin to be held in Washington since the 1970s, took place on June 26 at the Carnegie Endowment office. Sponsored by Carnegie's Foreign Policy magazine and the Asian Development Bank (ADB)—which runs the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) organization—leading people involved in the various Mekong projects from Japan, Manila (the ADB), Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, gathered with other international experts to discuss the progress and potential for the transformation of Southeast Asia through this Great Project approach.

Takao Toda, a representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, captured the character of the event when he described how, in the 1960s, developing the Mekong as a regional project was the "fourth alternative" to the three supposed alternatives at the time, all of which led to war. (The June 27 issue of EIR, with a special feature on the Mekong Development Project, was given to nearly every participant at the event.) Toda said that he was on his way to Iraq the following day, and he was taking the image of Mekong development, as it is now finally being realized, to Iraq, as well as to the Mideast and to Africa—that development is the alternative to the world descending into war.

Several of the participants had been interviewed, or are planning to give interviews, to EIR and EIW.

Mekong-Ganga Cooperation Progresses

Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, and India agreed to launch a "road map" to define their activities in Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) at a meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia June 20. Sorajak Kasemsuwan, assistant to Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, said, after the group's third meeting in Phnom Penh, that the road map would detail cooperation in the next few years. Tourism, transport, and cultural promotion would be among the areas of cooperation. India has pledged to provide $100,000 to assist cooperative activities in the Mekong-Ganga projects.

The meeting discussed the so-called "Asoke road" or Buddhism road, linking India, Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, Sorajak said. The meeting has asked Thailand to open a website, while India would provide information technology to promote the road. The six countries agreed to jointly market and advertise a campaign using Chiang Mai as a common tourist destination. Thailand, as the next MGC chairman, has offered to host the first senior official meeting ahead of a ministerial-level meeting, he said.

CFR Task Force: More U.S. Involvement Needed in Afghanistan.

A 24-page Council on Foreign Relations' Task Force, headed by former U.S. Ambassadors Frank Wisner (India) Nicholas Platt (Pakistan), and Dennis Kux, among others, issued a report which makes it clear that "business as usual" in Afghanistan will lead to a total breakdown. The report, "Afghanistan: Are we Losing the Peace?" recommends a much larger U.S. troop involvement, a large-scale increase in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), disarming of the warlords, putting in a billion dollars per year for Afghanistan's reconstruction, building the stalled Kabul-Kandahar road, among other suggestions.

The report indicates that there is a growing concern that the United States cannot just "hang in there" in Afghanistan any longer. Although it is never spelled out, the report shows that a section of the U.S. Establishment is conveying the message that things are going awfully wrong in Afghanistan: Either Washington puts in a lot more effort to secure the place, or Afghanistan will go to the dogs. The status quo does not exist, rather, things are getting worse.

The report also steered clear of either praising or criticizing Pakistan, giving the impression that Pakistan is not a major factor in settling the Afghan problem. For example, one sentence said that Washington must caution Russia, Iran, and Pakistan not to do anything which could unsettle the Kabul government.

Tribal Agency Will Fight Pakistani-U.S. Troops

Pakistan's Tribal Agency says it will fight Pakistani-U.S. troops in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The tribal chief of Mohmand tribal agency in the NWFP has issued a statement saying the tribal agency will fight U.S.-Pakistan troops looking for al-Qaeda and Taliban militia in the province. The tribal agency's view has been endorsed by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), the six-party Islamic coalition government in the province. The endorsement came from Maulana Fazlur Rahman, chief of the Jamiatul Ulema-e-Islami, and a known backer of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Central Secretary of the Jamaat-e-Islami Syed Munawar Hussain has also backed the tribal agency's views. Together, the Jamaat and Jamiatul Ulema-e-Islami constitute the major faction within the MMA.

The announcement by the tribal agency, and endorsement of that view by the MMA leaders, indicate the gravity of the situation, which some analysts believe is nearly ripe for a full-fledged civil war in Pakistan.

Taliban Kills 24 Afghan Troops

The Daily Islam of Pakistan reported June 24 that a convoy of coalition troops was ambushed by the Taliban in Paktika province, causing the deaths of 24 Afghan soldiers. No foreign casualties have been reported.

Meanwhile, Taliban supreme Mullah Mohammad Omar has named a 10-man leadership council to organize resistance against foreign troops in Afghanistan. The report, carried by the Pakistani newspaper The News, says Mullah Omar announced the formation of the council via an audiotape, in which he called upon the Taliban to make sacrifices to drive out U.S. and other foreign troops, and the "puppet" government of Hamid Karzai.

The security situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating fast. The German weekly Der Spiegel has reported that the German Foreign Ministry is rethinking whether to expand German troop involvement in Afghanistan, considering the poor security situation. On June 7, four German soldiers were killed by the rebels in an attack on the Bagram Air Base. Lately, the Germans have been talking about expanding the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAFs) from the present level of about 12,000 troops to close to 40,000 troops, but this is now being reconsidered.

Manila-MILF Talks May Begin Again

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has asked Malaysia to send a "ceasefire observer team" to the Philippines, in preparation for renewed peace talks with the separatist group MILF. An official request has been relayed by the Philippine Foreign Minister to his counterpart in Malaysia. The move follows widely reported statements by MILF leader Salamat Hashim, who on June 22 declared terrorism to be "anathema to the teachings of Islam.... [We] seriously reiterate our condemnation and abhorrence of terrorist tendencies ... consequently, we reject and deny any link with terrorist organizations or activities in this part of the Asian region, particularly in south Philippines, and elsewhere in the world." Hashim's spokesman Eid Kabalu indicated this message specifically responded to Macapagal's demand on June 19 that the MILF cut off "terror links."

Salamat will himself lead the talks, which has been a contentious issue until now, and has said that he wants sign the final settlement to end armed conflict for the Bangsamoro people.

Pressure Builds on Myanmar To Release Aung San Suu Kyi

Japan, the largest aid donor to Myanmar, said on June 25 it would suspended aid, following through on a warning issued by its Foreign Minister during the June 16-20 ASEAN meeting. Japan's Deputy Foreign Minister Yetsuro Yano, who was in Yangon, said, "Our efforts to break the ice did not work out as I expected, which is due to the insufficient efforts of the State Peace and Development Council," the ruling Junta in Myanmar. Yano made the statement after meeting with Gen. Khin Nyunt, third-highest ranking officer in the SPDC.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir weighed in on the stalemate, stating bluntly: "I hope she [Aung San Suu Kyi] is released as soon as possible. I don't know why she has not been released yet. I hope that the government of Myanmar takes into consideration the views expressed by other countries, especially its fellow ASEAN members, [who] have been put in a quandary."

Detained Myanmar Opposition Leader Meets Red Cross

Tin Oo, vice chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Myanmar, met with a six-member International Committee of the Red Cross delegation June 24. The ICRC reported that the 70-year-old Tin Oo was in good health and, like NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was not injured in the May 30 clash between government supporters and Suu Kyi's caravan. The meeting with Tin Oo helped to counter reports circulating around the May 30 incident.

Myanmar officials also refuted statements from Britain's Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien, who said Suu Kyi had been locked up in a "two-room hut" in Yangon's notorious Insein prison. Myanmar's Home Minister denied O'Brien's report in a meeting with Britain's Ambassador and an embassy colleague.

Asian Bond Fund Established in Chiang Mai

The Asia Cooperation Dialogue, a group of 18 nations from across Asia and the Mideast, announced that 11 of their members will create an Asian Bond Fund (ABF) in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on June 22, with $1 billion in deposits from their reserve funds. The original intent was to get 1% of the reserves across Asia (which would be about $13 billion), but the establishment of the Fund at a smaller level is nonetheless expected to spur further growth. Already India has offered to add $1 billion on its own.

The fund will be used to both protect against speculative attacks, and to invest in the region's industry and infrastructure.

ASEAN To Set Up Integrated Energy Grid

Thailand plans to go ahead with the development of the ASEAN Grid project, an effort to integrate regional electricity generation and transmission industry to optimize energy resources in the region, an idea first proposed 20 years ago.

Prutichai Chonglertvanichkul, assistant director for system planning and transmission of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), said the ASEAN Grid is a power-pool project that will link key regional power generation sources to poorer neighboring countries.

The grid project would divide the electricity transmission-linking areas into two zones. The western zone comprising Indochina, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia's Sumatra Island. The eastern zone would link Malaysia's Borneo to Brunei, and the Philippines. Within 2003, phase one of the electricity-network links in the western zone would build transmission lines to connect Cambodia and Vietnam. In 2004, electric-transmission lines would connect Thailand and Cambodia. By 2008, power transmission lines would be built to connect the Nam Thuen power project in Laos to plants in Thailand. Also by 2008, electric transmission lines would be built to connect Malaysia and Sumatra.

Heads of public and private energy companies from the ten members of ASEAN, meeting in Indonesia, decided on a financing plan for the project, which will be finalized at a meeting in August in Bangkok. Malaysia has been assigned to oversee the financial arrangements.

India To Join Anti-Drug Alliance

India will join the July meeting of the anti-drug alliance among China, Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos, set up by the "Beijing Declaration," in May 1995. The meeting will be held in Chiang Rai, Thailand (about 50 km northeast of Chiang Mai), in the Golden Triangle, and will discuss crop substitution and a crackdown on precursor chemicals used in making amphetamines.

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