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From the Vol.1,No.12 issue of Electronic Intelligence Weekly
Asia News Digest

Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan Sign Trilateral Agreement

Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on trilateral cooperation to work out ways of increasing investments in their economies, and improving access to regional markets. The Memorandum is to probe ways to enhance cooperation by and among their private sectors, facilitate trade transactions, and coordinate regional strategies to expand trilateral economic cooperation.

However, such vital cooperation underscores the problems represented by the Bush Administration, which released a report this week targetting Iran (which aided the U.S. against the Taliban) as the "most active" in states which are sponsoring terrorism. Of course, the United States has made the Afghanistan/Pakistan operations the front line in its war against al-Qaeda, and has been unable to pull together an economic solution for Afghanistan. Now, Washington's policy will tend to disrupt the collaboration among neighbors.

Academics in Australia Call for Cultural/Research Boycott Of Israel

Two Australian academics have initiated a call for "urgent international action to stop the massacres perpetrated against the Palestinian people." John Docker, a Jewish Australian author and fellow of the Australian National Unviersity's humanties research center, and Ghassan Hage, a Lebanese Christian Australian of Sydney University's anthropology department, initiated the call.

The Docker/Hage calls begins:

"Despite widespread international condemnation for its policy of violent repression against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories, the Israeli Government appears impervious to moral appeals from world leaders. It is clear that while the Palestinians are rightly requested to rein in their extremists, the Israelis have elected their extremists to power. The slow, dehumanising and relentless colonisation of the West Bank and Gaza that has been continuing unabated in recent years has taken a murderous turn of immense proportions. How long are we, the citizens of a Western democracy, going to accept the silence of our Government in the face of the rampages of the Israeli army in the West Bank?...

"[W]e call for a boycott of research and cultural links with Israel. We urge our colleagues not to attend conferences in Israel; to pressure our universities to suspend any existing exchange or linkage arrangements; and to refuse to distribute scholarship and academic position information...."

Despite a pro-Sharon "counter-call," and statements by the Israeli Embassy in Canberra calling the boycott campaign "ridiculous" and "anti-democratic," more than 90 Australian academics have signed to support the boycott.

Democratic Republic of East Timor Becomes the Newest Nation

Shortly past midnight on May 20, East Timor became the first new nation of the 21st Century, following four centuries of Portuguese colonial rule, and two decades of occupation by Indonesia.

Overcoming the political turmoil and pessimism which followed the August 1999 referendum on East Timor's status, President Xanana Gusmao has set a remarkable example, and urged compassion and reconciliation to his 800,000-person constituency, a message scarcely noted in leading U.S. dailies. In his inauguration speech, President Gusmao paid tribute to former Indonesian President B.J. Habibie, who, in the end, allowed the referendum to go forward, to Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who claimed credit for the idea, and to Bill Clinton, who was U.S. President at the time. But, his most important message was to Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who joined the celebration during a four-hour visit to the new nation.

At his inauguration, as President of the new nation, Gusmao proposed: "Today, we all agree that the strains in our dealings were a result of an historical mistake, which now belongs to history and to the past. And this past, because it already has a rightful place in history, should not continue to strain our spirits or to hamper our attitudes and conduct. Together, Mrs. President [Megawati], the two peoples should contribute to the construction of a better world."

Japanese Give Nod to ASEAN+3 Secretariat in Kuala Lampur

Japan has agreed that the secretariat for the ASEAN+3 dialogues be based in Malaysia, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad announced May 21, following a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in the latter's office at Sori Kantei.

Dr. Mahathir expressed confidence that the ASEAN+3 would eventually become the East Asian Economic Group (EAEG) he proposed years ago. China had expressed support for the EAEG from the very start, while South Korea is now very bullish on the ASEAN+3, as it was President Kim Dae-jung who proposed that it be set up as a formal move towards EAEG, he told Malaysian reporters on May 22.

On Agricultural Subsidies: China Wants To Copy U.S.

It's a free-trade paradox: If the United States is legislating large-scale subsidies for agriculture, why shouldn't China do the same? asked Chinese Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Vice Minister Long Yongtu in a speech delivered at a Washington economic conference May 21.

"After the U.S. Congress adopted such a bill [protecting U.S. agriculture], why can we not do similar things?" asked Long Yongtu.

China's agreement to make concessions on its own support for internal agriculture, was the most controversial issue during the years of negotiations on World Trade Organization (WTO) entry, which Long himself led. The U.S. farm bill will make the situation even more difficult for Chinese farmers, already hit very hard by imports of cheap U.S. grain and other imports. Beijing may have to intervene.

Aghan War Produces Big Headaches for British Forces

The U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan have launched operations under the umbrella of Operation Enduring Freedom, such as Operation Mountain Lion, Operation Snipe, Operation Condor, and Operation Anaconda. However, as even the horrors which have made their way into the press show, one operation after another is turning out to be a farce. Should Operation Enduring Freedom be renamed Operation Enduring Farce?

Take the case of Brigadier Roger Lane, the British officer who led the commandos involved in Operation Snipe. Lane claimed to have discovered in the caves in eastern Afghanistan 22 truckloads of rockets, rocket-propelled grenades, and other arms and ammunition belonging to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. After he destroyed them, it was found out that they belonged to the Pushtun supporters of the Afghan Interim Chief, Hamid Karzai.

Operation Condor involved a joint force of Australian and British commandos. Following a reported ambush of the Australian commandos supposedly by a large number of al-Qaeda members, again in eastern Afghanistan, the British rushed to the rescue, and Lane claimed a major battle victory after a pitched fight which killed 10 "al-Qaeda" members. Then the British government found out that the British and the Australian commandos were fighting not the al-Qaeda, but a group of Afghan expatriates from the West whom the CIA's covert action division had recruited, trained, and infiltrated into Eastern Afghanistan.

The British Government has subsequently transferred Brigadier Roger Lane out of Afghanistan.

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