In this issue:

Yashwant Sinha To Attend India-Iran Meet in Tehran

Japanese Government for Mekong Project

Indonesian Foreign Minister Criticizes U.S. Policy

Soros Front Butts In on Myanmar 'Roadmap'

Vietnam Plans To Build 32 Power Plants

Two Pakistani Nuclear Scientists Detained by the FBI

Better Links with Yunan in the Works

India To Buy Hydropower from Nepal

'Operation Avalanche' Fails To Find Rebels

From Volume 2, Issue Number 50 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Dec. 16, 2003
Asia News Digest

Yashwant Sinha To Attend India-Iran Meet in Tehran

India's External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha will attend the two-day (Dec. 13-14) meeting of the Indo-Iranian Joint Commission in Tehran. Sinha will also meet the Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazzi and President Mohammad Khatami.

According to The News of Pakistan, Sinha's last-minute decision to attend the meeting has to do with renewing efforts to build the US$3 billion Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, along with other economic ties with Iran.

Iran has been pursuing the pipeline project with India and Pakistan since 1996. Iranian officials claim the 1,600 mile (2,600 kilometer) pipeline would save India about US$300 million annually in energy costs. Indian concern had all along been the security issues since the pipeline will be laid overland through Pakistan.

On Dec. 9, Pakistan's Ambassador to India, Aziz Ahmed Khan, said Islamabad is ready to guarantee the pipeline's security. "Frankly, India has nothing to worry about because we guarantee security to the project under international conventions," Ambassador Aziz Ahmed Khan told reporters in Kolkata.

Japanese Government for Mekong Project

The summit commemorating 30 years of Japan-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) relations, will be held in Tokyo on Dec. 15-16. The Japanese government is ready to provide aid, which will include three-year yen credits to the five Mekong River basin countries—Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar. The aid will be for building roads, railroads, bridges, airports, and harbors. Japan will also sign the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, signed earlier by China at the recent Bali ASEAN Summit.

Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi met with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who will co-chair the upcoming summit in Tokyo, on Dec. 10, and told her that Japan will offer a loan of US$925 million for building infrastructure, including power plants and ports. More aid to the other ASEAN countries is expected, as Japan seeks ways to reassert its leading role in Southeast Asia. In recent years, China has emerged as the most important partner of ASEAN.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Criticizes U.S. Policy

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda, speaking at a conference in Jakarta, sponsored by the Australian Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific, and attended by ambassadors from the United States, Britain, France, and India, as well as U.S. State Department officials, said: "The situation in Iraq today shows that smart bombs and air cover cannot turn the tide against terrorists," who cannot be "obliterated once and for all with surgical strikes.... An arbitrary preemptive war has been waged against a sovereign state—arbitrary because it is without sufficient justification in international law. Does that mean that any state may now individually and arbitrarily decide to use force preemptively against any other state perceived as a threat?" He called the Iraq adventure an "utter failure," and warned against any balkanization as a sure way to create "a new and terrible round of internecine violence."

U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Skip Boyce and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Daley both weakly defended the U.S policy—a process that is becoming increasingly more painful for the U.S diplomats.

Soros Front Butts In on Myanmar 'Roadmap'

Drug legalizer George Soros's Free Burma Coalition group has issued a laughable press release extending its support to the political transition Myanmar junta is undertaking, while never mentioning Soros's aggressive pro-drug-legalization agenda in a country which suffers the reputation as the world's second-largest producer of heroin, and the leading producer of methamphetamines.

Free Burma Coalition's statement says: "Motivated solely by our common desire for solving Burma's decades-long political problems in a peaceful manner, we welcome in principle ... [the] proposal to convene a national convention." "We sincerely believe it is a first step in the right direction for our country, which has long been devastated by political conflicts, economic decay and ethnic discontent," the Washington-based group added. "However, we wish to emphasize that our welcome statement here is not to be misconstrued as a full embrace of the plan." The statement also demands the participation of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the talks.

The Soros group's statement was issued in advance of an international forum, to be hosted by Thailand, on Dec. 15, offering Myanmar an opportunity to outline its reform plan to a dozen countries.

Vietnam Plans To Build 32 Power Plants

Vietnam plans to build 32 power plants between 2003 and 2010 for a combined capacity of 9,500 megawatts. Total investment will be in the range of US$11.6 billion, the State Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) reported on Dec. 8. In addition to EVN, some funding is expected as well from local and foreign business groups, especially from Japan.

Ten plants with total capacity of 3,055 mw would be operational by 2005. Construction of five hydropower plants, and one major thermoelectric plant will start this year, and 10 others in 2004. EVN has recently estimated that the country's demand for electricity will increase by 15-16% each year to reach 48.5-53 billion kilowatt-hours in 2005, and 88-93 billion kilowatt-hours in 2010. Vietnam's present capacity stands at 8,860 MW.

Two Pakistani Nuclear Scientists Detained by the FBI

Two senior Pakistani nuclear scientists, Dr. Farooq Mohammad and Dr. Yasin Chohan were detained by the FBI on Dec. 11. The men have been accused of passing on nuclear secrets to Iran. Pakistani officials denied they were involved in wrongdoing.

Pakistani diplomats in Vienna told Reuters last month that the IAEA was investigating a possible link between Pakistan and Iran, after Tehran acknowledged using a centrifuge design that appears identical to ones used for enriching uranium in Pakistan.

Both scientists were "top" personnel in Pakistan's Khan Research Lab, located at Kahuta, somewhere between Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Both of them worked under the "father" of the Pakistani nuclear program, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Two years ago under U.S pressure, Pakistani authorities arrested Dr. Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood, who had designed the Khusab Nuclear Power Plant. Dr. Mehmood was accused of providing his services to the Taliban later.

Pakistan, however, has denied that the scientists were arrested by the FBI. Opposition senators from the nation's upper house of parliament have lodged a protest, saying the arrests made at the behest of a foreign power endangers nation's security.

Better Links with Yunan in the Works

Officials from China's Yunnan province and Thailand will hold a meeting in January to foster bilateral trade between Northern Thailand and Southern China, the Thai Foreign Ministry said on Dec. 11. The decision to hold talks was made at a meeting between Yunan Governor Xu Rongkai and Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai in Bangkok on Dec. 11

The Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman said the duo discussed various ways of enhancing economic cooperation, including proposing the China-Thai free-trade agreement, and the enhancement of air aviation and transportation links. "It was decided that a Thai-Yunan working group would hold the talks next month to expand cooperation," Thai spokesman said.

Thailand has also offered to accept an alternate form of travel document in lieu of passports for visitors from Yunnan to northern Thailand. Thailand had earlier refused to relax its travel document requirements for fear that it would enable more Chinese to migrate to Thailand.

Thai spokesman pointed out that Thailand has also urged China to help sponsor the construction of bridge across the Mekong River near Chiang Rai's Chiang Khong district, as well as build railways linking Thailand and Southern China.

India To Buy Hydropower from Nepal

India's state-owned Power Trading Corp. has sealed a deal with Australia's Snowy Mountain Engineering Corp (SMEC) to buy electricity. SMEC plans to build a 750 megawatt West Seti hydropower plant in western Nepal, at a cost of US$850 million. This will be the largest power-generation plant in Nepal. Nepal has the potential to develop 83,000 mw of hydropower.

Construction of the project is expected to begin in 2004, and will be completed in five years. Since the entire electricity generated will be exported to India, the Australian firm will build a new facility to give electricity to Nepal, said Lakhman Singh Bhandari, director general of the Electricity Development Department of Nepal. The electricity sale would generate revenues approximately 2.5% of Nepal's total revenues.

India has a capacity of more than 100,000 MW, which is about 13% short of its demand.

'Operation Avalanche' Fails To Find Rebels

"Operation Avalanche," the largest U.S military operation in Afghanistan, involving 2,000 U.S troops and many Afghan National Army personnel, began on Dec. 5. The massive air raids in this campaign in southeastern Afghanistan have already killed 15 children and many adults. Operation Avalanche has also destroyed many homes.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty told Reuters that the U.S troops have so far failed to engage any Taliban or allied militants. "The fact that we did not hit the jackpot here is not indicative that the air assault was not successful," Hilferty added.

Operation Avalanche was unleashed to force the Taliban militia in their stronghold in southeastern Afghanistan to abandon their stations and leave the area. Washington and Kabul are now in the process of holding a Loya Jirga in Kabul to endorse the drafted Constitution. Taliban, from underground, has warned that the life of each and every one of the 500 delegates assembling in Kabul for the Loya Jirga is in danger.

The Loya Jirga has been postponed from Dec. 10, to Dec. 13, to Dec. 14.

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