Asia News Digest
Koizumi Dances Around Issue of Troops to Iraq
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi had to hedge July 29 on the question of the extremely controversial bill passed July 28 on deployment of Japanese Self-Defense Forces to Iraq, the China Daily said. Koizumi said at a press conference: "The bill is not one that requires the sending of Self-Defense Forces.... It's a bill that allows the dispatch of the SDF."
Koizumi is caught in a bind, because a solid majority of Japanese citizens oppose the troop deployment, and he would have to sell the policy to the population, which will not be easy. The Opposition kept the bill from passing for two full days. Koizumi claimed that any Japanese troops in Iraq would only go to "non-combat areas," but people in Japan are clearly aware that there is no such thing.
Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on July 28 that no decision would be made on the role of Japanese troops until a fact-finding mission had surveyed the situation in Iraq.
Cambodian General Elections Run Smoothly
In the third general election since the 1993 UN-sponsored elections, on July 28, the ruling Cambodian People's Party, led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, came in eight seats short of the two-thirds absolute majority needed to form a single-party government. Out of 123 seats in the National Assembly, the royalist Funcinpec Party led by Prince Rannaridh, son of King Norodom Sihanouk, received 26 seats, and the eponymous Sam Rainsy Party, 24. Rainsy was heavily funded by the National Endowment for Democracy's International Republican Institute (IRI), with special personal support from Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky). Voting took place on July 28, but official final tallies will not be released until Aug. 8.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has held leadership posts since he was first named Foreign Minister in 1979, chose not to campaign in this election. Both Rainsy and Rannariddh declared fraud following the unofficial tally, after which declaration, they declared that they would be willing to join a coalition with the CPP, but only on condition that Hun Sen step down as Prime Ministerwhich is highly unlikely.
UN Envoy Supports Thai 'Road Map' for Myanmar
Veteran Malaysian diplomat Razali Ismali has encouraged Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai to pursue his proposed "Road Map" for ending the stalemate between the ruling State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar (Burma), and chairman of the National League for Democracy Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been jailed in Myanmar since May 30.
Surakiart said July 29 that he would seek the cooperation of many countries, including India and China, to end the current deadlock, following Suu Kyi's detention after a confrontation between government supporters and her NLD followers in northern Burma. The "Road Map" was floated at the recent Asia-Europe Meeting in Bali, but with lukewarm results. ASEAN opposes sanctions, such as those just passed by both houses of the U.S. Congress, which will cut $350 million of Burmese exports. President Bush signed the bill on July 29.
Surakiart lashed out at U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), who on July 28 attacked Thailand for acting as a "mouthpiece" for the Burmese junta. Surakiart suggested that McConnell "acquire more information and examine Thailand's leading role in finding a solution."
Malaysia Issues the First Gold Dinar
The Royal Mint of Malaysia issued the first gold dinar coins on July 29, which will be used to pay part of its employees' July salaries, if they so choose. The dinar has been issued in denominations of one-quarter dinar, equal to US$13.80, or 1 dinar, equal to US$47.63. For now, the coin will not be available for trade, but the head of the Royal Mint said that creating an exchange window for the dinar could be developed. For now, the Royal Mint will approach four Islamic banks to promote the dinar in August. Currently 1 gold dinar is set at 4.25 grams of gold of 91.7% clarity. The Mint will soon add 2-dinar and 4-dinar denominations to the quarter dinar and the dinar.
Hong Kong Dollar Will Not Be Allowed To Float
A China Daily editorial on July 29 rebuked the "highly speculative front-page report" in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post of July 25, which claimed "doubts about the Hong Kong's linked exchange rate system." China Daily asserted: "Let's make no mistake about it. The Hong Kong government, backed by nearly HK$300 billion in fiscal reserves and the support of the mainland government, has remained as unwavering as ever in its determination to maintain the linked exchange rate to the U.S. dollar." Hong Kongwith the support of Chinadecisively won the bloody financial "Battle of Hong Kong" against currency speculators in 1998, after so many other Asian nations had been crushed. The South China Morning Post is a veteran of old colonial days in Hong Kong.
The China Daily editorial emphasized that "there is simply no economic benefit that can be derived from decoupling. It is a well-known fact that no economy can devalue itself out of a recession. In many cases, currency devaluation by one exporting country to boost its export competitiveness will prompt its competitors to follow suit."
Is U.S. Working With 'Terrorist' Ansar al-Islam?
In the world of murky intelligence, murky briefings, and murky media, it is difficult to figure out who is a terrorist and who is not. The Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard B. Myers, a uniformed favorite of U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, speaking at the Bagram Air Base on July 30 said, according to Fox News, that the United States is getting "very good intelligence" from operatives in Iraq on the al-Qaeda. Myers declined to give details but suggested some of the intelligence was gained from Ansar al-Islam, a radical group based in northeast Iraq. Earlier, U.S. intelligence had identified Ansar al-Islam as a terrorist group.
On March 30, during the military operations against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, The Observer of London reported that at least 100 U.S. Special Forces soldiers, led by thousands of Kurdish peshmarghas, had pummelled the high mountains in northeastern Iraq with air strikes and artillery shells to destroy the Ansar al-Islam group, linked to al-Qaeda. Ansar al-Islam had put up a stiff resistance and then, it was reported, hundreds fled the scene. At the time, it was said that destroying Ansar was seen as essential to allowing the northern front against Saddam Hussein to be opened up. The existence of Ansar in Iraq was used by the neo-cons in Washington as justification for the claim that Saddam harbored al-Qaeda terroristseven though they were based in the Kurdish area under U.S. "no-fly-zone" protection.
Now, it seems in hindsight, if one believes Gen. Myers, that it was in the best interests of the United States that the Ansar members fled the bloody attack by the U.S. Special Ops!
Musharraf Coup Derails India-Pakistan Progress on Kashmir
Former Pakistani High Commissioner to India Niaz Naik told the July 31 Pakistan Observer newspaper that, following the Lahore diplomacy in February 1999 by the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, when Vajpayee went to Pakistan by bus to meet his Pakistani counterpart, Mian Nawaz Sharif, the two leaders had decided to open a separate channel to resolve the Kashmir dispute. During their talks, they set a 10-month time frame to end the dispute.
Niaz Naik said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif secretly nominated his Principal Secretary, the late Anwar Zahid, for the proposed deliberations, while Vajpayee appointed a journalist, R.K. Mishra, to represent his office. On Feb. 28, Nawaz Sharif telephoned Vajpayee to inform him that he was ready to receive Mishra in Islamabad. Mishra, following the meeting, informed Vajpayee that the talks had made progress.
On Oct. 12, about eight months later, Nawaz Sharif was removed from power in a coup led by the Chief of Pakistan's Armed Services, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
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