Asia News Digest
Philippines Opposition Warns of U.S.-Philippines Quagmire
Philippines Senator Edgardo Angara, leader of the main opposition party, Laban, on April 25 bluntly warned the United States against engaging in combat with local Muslim insurgents, saying this could unleash an Islamic backlash and lead to the breakup of his country.
"...When policymakers 10,000 miles away in Washington see some casualties among their people and when the fight is clothed in anti-terrorist trappings, who knows, even the Washington policymakers may be entrapped.... We will pay a high price if we entrap and engulf the Americans into fighting our insurgency war. The whole Arab world will go against us. Our own Muslims will become even more fanatical and I think we will ultimately lose Mindanao," he said, adding such a breakup would happen because the separatists would win sympathy from neighboring Indonesia and Malaysia where, "If they see that their own brothers in Mindanao are now the target of joint Philippines and American operations, that would set off a big backlash among Muslims in the region."
The U.S. currently has deployed approximately 3,700 troops to the Philippines for alleged anti-terrorist actions, with rules of engagement that threaten to bring about direct U.S. involvement with local guerrillas.
The Koreas Are Moving Ahead on Economic Ties
According to the April 22 Korea Times, North and South Korea are making progress in their effort to reconnect the South-North Railway by October 2002. On April 21, South Korea agreed to send advanced de-mining equipment to help North Korea clear the DMZ. "We could take our equipment to work inside the North Korean zone," Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun told reporters. "We are pushing for the reconnection of the railway by October."
Jeong revealed Seoul was acting in response to a personal request by North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-il. The Northern Kim called for Seoul's assistance in working inside the DMZ in his meeting with Seoul Presidential envoy Lim Dong-won on April 4, to demonstrate that he really wishes to "reconnect the Seoul-Shinuiju railway quickly," said South Korean officials. "We don't have de-mining equipment. Could the South help us with that part?" the North Korean leader asked.
"Now, positive forecasts from top officials of the two Koreas have raised hopes for an era of inter-Korean transportation," the Korea Times says happily. "The opening up of an inter-Korean railway would mean that land transportation would be possible all the way to Europe. A cargo of one 20 foot equivalent units (TEU) takes 26 days and $2,100 to travel from Seoul to Belarus by ship, but needs only 16 days and $1,300 with rail." Defense officials are slated to work out the details on May 7 in Seoul.
In this context, it is not surprising that the South Korean government, according to the April 11 Korea Times, has asked the United States to, in the words of a South Korean Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman, "stop defaming the North Korean regime ahead of the visit to the North by Jack Pritchard, U.S. ambassador for negotiations with North Korea."
Indonesian Foreign Minister Takes on U.S. Support for Israel
Long-time Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, according to the Jakarta Post of April 18, ripped into U.S. Ambassador Ralph Boyce for the United States' inability to control Israel.
After sitting through Boyce's speech at a meeting sponsored by the Financial Club of Jakarta and the Indonesian Council of World Affairs, in which Boyce complained that foreign investors are impatiently waiting for "considerable progress" in Indonesia's internal legal and financial sector reforms to bring it into line with the war on terrorism, Alatas told Boyce that, apart from being indignant, Indonesia was bewildered by the U.S. actions. Alatas demanded: What's the secret that such a small country as Israel that is so dependent on the U.S., remains in defiance of the "almighty President of the U.S.A and the almighty UN Security Council," and still gets away with "the killings"?
The Jakarta Post reports that "Boyce did not answer this question directly, but explained later that there was an ongoing crisis in the U.S.-Israel relationship, which was still playing itself out." Boyce said, "It's a real challenge for the U.S. today, as the lone remaining superpower. You are constantly called upon to either defend yourself against not doing enough because of your responsibility and role, or to defend yourself against the charge that you are doing too much, too fast, intervening."
Malaysia's Dr. Mahathir Tells Qaddafi How His Nation Weathered the 1997 Financial Storm
According to a story in the Malaysia Star on April 21, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had at least three unscheduled meetings with Libya's President Muammar Gaddafi, at Gaddafi's request, during his recent two-day visit to Libya, in which he explained how he had led Malaysia's economic development, how Malaysia weathered the 1997 financial crisis, and why he is travelling to the U.S. to meet with President George W. Bush in May. Members of Gaddafi's entourage described the Libyan visit as unprecedented.
Dr. Mahathir told reporters that Gaddafi "especially wanted to know what we did to reject the powerful financial bodies in the world during our crisis.... He grilled me until 12:30 a.m. on our country. Gaddafi was very interested to know how we formulate our foreign policies.... I have met so many government leaders who face economic problems, but no one had asked me how we manage our economy," Dr. Mahathir said. Asked his personal impression of Gaddafi, Dr. Mahathir said he was a friendly but "angry man," because of what had happened during the Italian colonial period.
Dr. Mahathir told Gaddafi, regarding his May visit to the White House, that it is "good for us to go to the U.S. because we want to know what is the country's stand. And maybe we can develop [ties] after that."
On the crisis in the Middle East, the two leaders strongly condemned the aggression and atrocities committed by the Israeli Army, and called for immediate action by the international community to stop the carnage in Palestine. Both countries called on the international community to act immediately to force Israel to abide by all United Nations resolutions on the establishment of an independent state of Palestine.
Mahathir: If Sharon Is a Man of Peace, So Are Suicide Bombers
That's what Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad told a press conference at the Kuala Lumpur airport, upon his return April 22 from a trip to Morocco, Libya, and Bahrain, according to the New Straits Times. He said that the crisis in the Middle East was a major subject because of anger over U.S. support for Sharon's actions in Jenin, where "we do not know how many Palestinians have been killed..." He compared Jenin to the atrocities committed by the Nazis.
The Japanese Flag Once Again Being Burned Across Asia
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has once again stuck his finger into the collective eye of his country's Asian neighbors, while denying he "meant it," in "casually" visiting the Yasukuni war shrine the week of April 15. As a result, crowds across Asia are again burning the Japanese flag and pictures or effigies of Koizumi, laying waste to regional cooperation prospects. "I think they can understand that we are going to put effort into developing friendly relations with both China and South Korea," Koizumi said April 22, as demonstrations spread.
But there was no sign that Seoul or Beijing is prepared to see the visit to the shrine in that light. South Korean Foreign Minister Choi Sung-Hong summoned Japanese Ambassador Terusuke Terada to lodge a formal protest. "We are dismayed as this controversial visit happened a month or so before the two countries host the World Cup finals together," he said, after an "uneasy" meeting. Chung Mong-Joon, co-chairman of the Korean World Cup Organising Committee (KOWOC), said Koizumi's latest gesture had destroyed efforts to bring the two countries together. Protesters held an anti-Japanese rally in central Seoul denouncing Koizumi's visit to the shrine, and burning the Japanese flag; when riot police put out the fire, the demonstrators ripped up the large "rising sun" flag with their hands and teeth.
China on April 21 also summoned the Japanese envoy to Beijing to protest Koizumi's visit, and in Hong Kong trade-union groups staged a demonstration. Dozen of Hong Kong labor unions, shouting slogans denouncing Japanese wartime atrocities in China, marched to the Japanese consulate to deliver a letter of protest and demand an apology from the Japanese government for its wartime brutality.
Koizumi won backing from right-wing Japanese newspapers for his visit. "Koizumi did the right thing," said the daily Yomiuri. The paper said the surprise visit months ahead of the anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender on Aug. 15 "reflected his desire to worship at the shrine without stirring up controversy."
Ex-King Zahir Shah's Return Brings Afghan Refugees Home
Since the return of the former Afghan King Zahir Shah on April 18, Afghan refugees from Pakistan and Iran have been pouring back into the country. In the first few days, 5,000 refugees have moved back. There are another 195,000 Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran, according to an UN estimate. Arrangements are afoot to repatriate around 125,000 refugees in May, said a representative of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
According to available reports, those who are coming back in droves belong to the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar. Most, if not all, are Pushtuns, the tribe of Zahir Shah.
Meanwhile, British Royal Marines spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Harradine told the Pakistani daily The Dawn in London April 22 that British Intelligence has learned of a "threat against the King." "They [the assassins] could pose as media to get close enough to him to do it," Harradine said. Harradine did not pinpoint who the potential assassins are, but said there exist "many factions" that would like to kill Zahir Shah. As a result of this "intelligence," security has been further tightened around Zahir Shah, which means that the Afghans are most likely outside the security cordons, and only the Western troops are in the inner cordons.
A report on April 20 suggests that the French troops patrolling the Kabul airport were shot at. It is not clear who the miscreants were, but the Kabul regime of Hamid Karzai quickly "identified" this as an act by those who want to eliminate Zahir Shah.
Afghanistan: Reconstruction Money Slow, Drugs Flourish
UN Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast, in an April 25 update to the UN Security Council, said that while the short-term and immediate needs of the Afghan people and their governing Interim Authority are being met, longer-term development projects are moving at a dangerously slow pace.
Prendergast said the reconstruction funds pledged last January at Tokyo have been "extremely slow to arrive." The interim government approved some $1.1 billion worth of pledges for reconstruction support in February. But a tour in mid-April revealed that only $160 million worth of initial reconstruction work has started. Most of the new reconstruction projects are starting only within a 50-kilometer perimeter of Kabul, mainly because of security threats outside of the capital region.
Julia Taft, Assistant Administrator and Director of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), pointed out that the greater than expected influx of refugees from Pakistan and a shortfall in pledges to the UN's World Food Program could cause trouble in weeks before the Loya Jirga (grand council of elders), due to take place in Kabul from June 10 to June 16.
Meanwhile, the Afghan government's attempt to stem the poppy trade is falling pitifully short, with the government having announced destruction of about 5,000 acres of poppy, out of an estimated 160,000 under cultivation.
Opponent of Musharraf's Referendum Put Under House Arrest
Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad was put under house arrest in Paksitan by President Pervez Musharraf's regime on April 21. The Jamaat chief was detained just as a long march had begun from Lahore to Rawalpindi, in opposition to Musharraf's referendum on extending his Presidential term. Protest rallies along the route have been scheduled to go ahead.
Jamaat, the largest of the orthodox Islamic religious political parties in Pakistan, has condemned the April 30 referendum, sought by Musharraf to extend his Presidency by another five years, as unconstitutional. Qazi pointed out that the Constitution demands the election of President by the national and provincial assembly members only. General Musharraf says that the Constitution also allows election of President through direct referendum, because the Constitution allows settling matters of national importance through public referendums.
For all practical purposes, the referendum is a farce. While pro-referendum rallies can be held, anti-referendum rallies are banned. There is no electoral roll, which translates to the fact that anyone can vote any number of times. Instead of holding such an elaborate farce, some Pakistani commentators have suggested two methods: Those who vote "no" will be counted as negatives, and the rest will be considered in favor of the referendum, whether they go out to vote or stay home. The second method goes back to the 9th-century Umayyad dynasty days, when the Caliph's men would go to every home and ask: "Are you for the bayt [ruler], or do you want to be beheaded?"
But Jamaat's intransigence is of some importance: Musharraf is counting on religious communities to show a good number of votes in favor of the extension of his Presidency. Jamaat is close to the military and to Saudi Arabia.
U.S. Forces Now Operating Inside Pakistan?
According to the New York Times of April 25, after weeks of denials, Pakistani senior officials have admitted that American advisers (read: special ops forces) are going to to accompany Pakistani troops into tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. The news report claims that the agreement between the Americans and the Pakistanis was struck after the seizure of documents and computer disks from a house inhabited by Abu Zubaydah, a senior al-Qaeda leader arrested on March 27 in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad. U.S. officials have also denied that the U.S. military is operating in Pakistan.
Reports by Reuters also indicate that the U.S. and other allied forces are experiencing gunfire from al-Qaeda members in the rugged slopes of the Hindu Kush range that separates Afghanistan from Pakistan. U.S. army spokesman Major Bryan Hilferty told Reuters that springtime in Afghanistan, when the snows melt on high mountain passes, would bring increased militant activity, but the country so far, "generally speaking," has been pretty quiet.
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