Asia News Digest
South Korean President-Elect Calls for Summit of Six Asian Leaders
South Korean President-elect Roh Moo-Hyun has called an extraordinary summit of six Asian leaders, including President Putin of Russia, Prime Minister Mahathir of Malaysia, Party Chairman Hu Jintao of China, Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan, and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines. They will gather at the May 9-13 International Meeting of the Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBIC), an association of business leaders in the region, whose current chairman is South Korea's Cho Suk-rai, CEO of the Hyosung Group.
The meeting, according to the organizing committee chairman, will discuss "global political and economic issues," and will in particular aim to "create North Korean programs meant to help ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula." As one of the first meetings scheduled after Roh's inauguration, it is clearly an intervention towards regional development, and cooperation in fending off the utopians' destabilization around Korea.
Korea Hand Donald Gregg Says Don't Demonize Kim Jong-il
Writing in Newsweek magazine of Feb. 3, Donald Gregg, the former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea under the elder President Bush, and head of the Korea Society, said that the current media and government campaign to portray North Korean lead Kim Jong-il in a "derisive or disdainful manner" reminds him of the similar campaign against Ho Chi Minh during the Vietnam War, and similar efforts to "demonize antagonistic foreign leaders we do not understand."
It is counterproductive, says Gregg, and contrary to reports from all those who have worked with himnaming Kim Dae-Jung, Madeleine Albright, and Russian and Chinese diplomats. He adds that Kim's admission that the kidnapping of Japanese under his father's regime was a "mistake that will not be repeated" was an "indirect rebuke of his father," one of many signs that Kim wants to improve relations with the West.
IAEA Brings North Korea Nuclear Issue to UN Security Council
On Feb. 12, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the same one which is running nuclear inspections in Iraq, sent the North Korea issue to the UN Security Council. Despite abstentions from Russia and Cuba, making the vote less than a consensus, the 35-member IAEA voted Feb. 12 to hold the North Koreans in violation of non-proliferation accords over their revived nuclear program. A U.S. diplomat in New York told Agence France Presse, however, that the UNSC may not automatically take up the issue.
The Bush Administration has said it would not seek sanctions, while the emerging alliance for sanity in regard to Iraq, among Russia, Germany, France, China, and others, is also insisting that there be no sanctions. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana spoke against sanctions, saying they would "contribute to the opposite of what we want to obtain, which is defusing the crisis."
Indonesia, Malaysia Launch Mass Protests Against Iraq War
In Jakarta, thousands of supporters of the Justice Party, dressed all in white, staged a morning protest on Feb. 9 at the main traffic circle, where the Parliament building and the British embassy are located. The peaceful marchers carried banners with the appeal, "Save peace and humanity and stop war on Iraq." Participants visited the UN office and the U.S. embassy. U.S. Ambassador Ralph Boyce and British Ambassador Richard Gozney met Feb. 8 with the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs to discuss the two countries' plans vis-à-vis Iraq.
In Malaysia, the national Malaysian Association of Youth Clubs (MAYC) has collected more than a million signatures, which will be given to Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad at the the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Kuala Lumpur Feb. 20-25. Petition organizers plan a peace rally on Feb. 15, ahead of the summit. Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar serves as President of MAYC.
Philippines Buckles to Washington Pressure to Produce Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
In a blatant media stunt coordinated to please Washington's warhawks, Philippines Foreign Secretary Blas Ople called, on Feb. 12, for the second secretary at the Iraqi embassy in Manila to be recalled, based on an intelligence report which claims that Husham Hussein had contact with an Abu Sayyaf member shortly after a bombing in October 2002 in Zamboanga, in which an American GI was killed.
Conveniently, the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) of the Philippines issued a "very detailed" report on the diplomat's alleged contact with Abu Sayyaf guerrillas on Feb. 11, claiming the diplomat had received a call at the embassy from a man identified by the NICA as an Abu Sayyaf guerrilla.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared, "The investigation should leave no stone unturned and the results thereof must be made known to the Filipino people and the international community." President Bush called President Arroyo late Feb. on 11 to "express concern" over the diplomat's alleged "terrorist links," and "praised President Arroyo's leadership on Iraq." Wire reports claim Manila gave the Iraqi official 48 hours to leave the country.
The Iraqi mission not only defended the diplomat, calling the accusation baseless, but also claimed that the Iraqi diplomat "has been subjected to a failed attempt by the U.S. embassy to make him betray his country" (Iraq made the same charge in the case of an Iraqi reporter at the UN who has been told to leave the United States).
Northwest China Sees Rapid Development
Development of railroad, road, water management, power, and other projects is also growing rapidly in Shaanxi Province in northwest China, reported Xinhua. Shaanxi's capital is the famous Silk Road city Xi'an.
Some 10 billion yuan (about US$1.2 billion) a year worth of infrastructure has been built over the past five years. Shaanxi's "fixed asset investment" was up almost 15% in 2002 over 2001, and GDP for the province rose 9.5% in the same period.
New rail routes, including Baotou-Shenmu, Xi'an-Yan'an, Xi'an-Ankang and Shenmu-Yan'an, have been completed and opened to traffic since the 1990s.
Double tracking of the Baoji-Lanzhou section of the Lianyungang-Lanzhou railway (the "Second Euro-Asian Continental Bridge"), and the Xi'an-Hefei section of the Xi'an-Nanjing railway, will be completed in the near future.
Also, the province's main cities, and 97% of its villages, have been linked up by highways. Construction of China's largest coal-generated electricity plant, which will have an installed gross capacity of 22.8 million kilowatts, will begin in 2003.
Hydropower, Road Development in China's Interior
China plans to build four big hydropower stations along the Jinsha River, the China Yangtze Three Gorges Project Development Corporation announced on Feb. 12. The power stations will have a combined installed capacity of 38.5 million kilowatts, twice as much as the generating capacity of the Three Gorges Project itself. These will be the first hydropower plants on the upper Yangtze River system. The Jinsha River runs from rugged southwest China into the Yangtze. Construction will begin at the Xiluodu power plant, which will begin operation in 2014 and will be completed in 2017.
In addition, China will build more roads in rural areas in the coming years, as a key part of its policy to develop the rural regions, Minister of Communications Zhang Chunxian announced. An extra 50 billion yuan (US$6 billion) directly from the central government will be used to build these roads. "Paving roads to villages could help farmers transport their products more easily to nearby markets, and will eventually benefit rural economies," Zhang stated. The construction of arterial roads will also be accelerated in the next few years. Five vertical and seven horizontal arteries will be built across China in coming years, he said.
Afghanistan Devastated by 25 Years of War
Afghanistan's water, forests, land, and the health of the people have been so devastated by 25 years of war, that these problems must be addressed immediately if there is to be any reconstruction of this nation, one of the very poorest on earth. Water and soil conditions are so bad in some areas, they will take generations to repair. These were the conclusions released in a report by the UN Environmental Programme at the end of January, prepared by a group of scientists who visited cities and villages in Afghanistan. This was the first comprehensive report on conditions in Afghanistan since the 1970s.
Drinking water is badly polluted all over the country; deforestation and overgrazing have badly damaged the land. Kabul and other cities have water so polluted that only 10% of the urban population can get clean water; the result is widespread epidemics. Also, sewers and sanitation facilities basically do not exist in the cities. In the mountains and deserts, deforestation is drastic. Water aquifers are drained, and what groundwater remains is contaminated. Soil erosion and pesticide pollution are so bad, that the scientists said that agriculture could be hampered for generations.
According to the UN findings, deserts have spread widely, overtaking once-arable land. Widespread forests in north and east Afghanistan have disappeared between 1977 and 2002; in the western areas, 50% of forest cover has been cut down. The Sistan wetlands, which also extend into Iran, have dried up in just four years! Afghanistan has suffered terrible drought in the past three years. The Helmand River, which drains about 30% of Afghanistan, has been running at just 2% of its annual average in recent years. The displaced population is using up forests for fuel and shelter, and this problem is getting worse fast.
"The speed of deforestation is at the moment very rapid," Pekka Haavisto, chairman of UNEP's investigating group said on Jan. 29, "and that has to be stopped. Reforestation, water management, and stopping desertification are very essential for the livelihoods of Afghans."
At the same time, some 2 million refugees have returned to this devastated situation from neighboring countries, and another 1.5 million should return in 2003. Afghan Minister for Irrigation, Water Resources and Environment, Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani, said on Jan. 29 that neglect of the environment would threaten the existence of the Afghan people.
Afghanistan's first priority is to make up for its "lost generation" of trained men and women, Afghan Minister for Irrigation, Water Resources and Environment Nuristani, said at the end of January. The mechanisms to rebuild this lost generation have to be put in place, in the constitution, in law, and in schools, he said.
|