Asia News Digest
Bloodiest Day in Thailand's Muslim South
Security forces clashed with suspected Muslim rebels in southern Thailand April 28, leaving at least 127 dead, in the bloodiest day in the history of the troubled region, officials said. Armed groups launched coordinated dawn attacks at 10 police stations and security checkpoints in the provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Singkhla near the Malaysian border. The attackers were mostly teenagers, armed with machetes and a few guns. Television provided gruesome evidence of the scene.
Militants also seized a mosque outside Pattani provincial town, where 32-28 were killed when troops stormed the building after a six-hour standoff.
Pattani Police Chief Maj. Gen. Paitoon Pattansophon told Associated Press that clashes took place in at least five places in Pattani province. Armored personnel carriers patrolled streets while helicopters hovered overhead.
U.S. Building Airstrip Next to Pakistan Borders
Heavy equipment flown in from Germany by C-130 transport planes is being used to build a full-fledged airstrip in Afghanistan's Paktika province, right next to Pakistan's tribal agency of South Waziristan. According to the U.S. Ambassador to Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad, this is the area where Osama bin Laden and his commanders are hiding. Pakistan made an effort in March to nab foreign terrorists in South Waziristan by carrying out a military operation. The operation which did not yield much, ended with the signing of the Wana Agreement, which provided amnesty to all locals if the foreign terrorists surrender to the Pakistani Army by April 30. Pakistani troops remain stationed in South Waziristan and will remain there until the foreign terrorists turn themselves in.
But the American move to build the airstrip so close to the Pakistani border has made Islamabad very uneasy. The building of the airstrip indicates that the Americans are eager to chase down the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants. It is likely that a plane taking off so close to the border will overfly Pakistani territory. The U.S. maintains a very close satellite surveillance over the area already. In the future, Islamabad is afraid, the airstrip will narrow down the response time and make U.S. troops available for quick surgical operations inside Pakistan. Islamabad worries that Washington would inform Pakistan only after carrying out such surgical operations. Islamabad is also aware that Washington wants Osama bin Laden by July.
Myanmar's Suu Kyi Meets With Party Leaders
All nine members of Myanmar's National League for Democracy (NLD), headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, have met with Suu Kyi at her home to discuss the constitutional convention to be held in May, a NLD party source told the AFP April 28. The NLD's vice chairman Tin Oo, who was brought from house arrest to attend the talks. The discussion reportedly ran for about 3 1/2 hours. This was the first full attendance meeting of the leadership body since the crackdown last May, when Suu Kyi's caravan was attacked during a political tour of the north.
"We have not yet made any decisions with regard to [attending] the national convention which is tentatively set for May 17," a source told the AFP. "We will meet again before we make a decision."
NLD Secretary U Lwin said that Aung San Suu Kyi was in good health and spirits. "She is in a good mood," he said. He also said the opposition party would not make a decision whether to attend until all nine had discussed the issue. "We have had only one chance to meet with Daw Suu (in late August, 2003), and we have constantly asked to see her again, because all nine of us need to meet to make decisions with regard to the national convention."
AFP reports U.S. President George W. Bush speaking with Thai Prime Minister Shinawatra about Suu Kyi on April 25.
U.S. Troops Train in Northeast India
About 100 U.S. infantrymen from Second Battalion of the First Infantry Regiment, and the Alaska-based 172nd Stryker Brigade were engaged in a 20-day (March 29-April 17), jungle-warfare training exercise with India's 9 Rajput Battalion at Veirengte in the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram. The training took place at the Counter-Insurgency Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS). The school is considered one of the most prestigious training institutions of its kind in the world. Troops belonging to Russia, France, and Vietnam, among others, have requested enrollment in CIJWS.
According to David Wisecarver, commanding officer of the U.S. troops at Veirengte, the United States does not have a facility appropriate for training in jungle warfare and those who got trained in Mizoram will be imparting their knowledge on jungle warfare to the U.S. troops based at home.
Last September, Indian and American troops had carried out a high-altitude mountain war exercise in Ladakh in the disputed Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir bordering China's Tibet province. The Mizoram exercise took place not far from the Indo-Chinese border. However, Beijing has not expressed publicly any anxiety over the Indo-U.S. exercises.
China Bank Head Sees Danger of Interest-Rate Changes
In his written speech to the International Monetary and Finance Committee meeting on April 24 in Washington, People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan warned that despite movement "toward recovery," the global economy relies excessively on conditions in certain individual countries. For example, great uncertainty remains, as to whether the U.S. economy has entered a period of stable growth, Zhou added.
World economic trends are being put at increasing risk due to uncertainties in "macroeconomic policy adjustments"especially interest rate-changesby the major industrial nations, Zhou said. If an interest-rate hike is not well-timed, or if it is not executed with proper intensity, the result might be a short-term upheaval in financial markets, which would, in turn, adversely affect the global recovery, Zhou declared, as reported by Xinhua.
Since the Dubai meeting last September, world economic vulnerabilities have by no means been entirely eliminated, Zhou said. Geopolitical confrontation persists, and debt remains a very conspicuous problem in some emerging markets, he warned.
Zhou also called for policy coordination and cooperation among nations, and for the industrialized nations to take responsibility, including for "gradually improving external account conditions"a clear reference to the U.S.
Thailand Freezes Privatization Under Labor Pressure
Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra overturned a deal reached between labor and the state power company to stop the privatization of power and water; a three-day strike is planned. The dramatic move came soon after the resignation of the entire board of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), due to their inability to overcome labor-organized public resistance to the privatization of the state-owned power industry. The new board on April 24 voted down the government's plan to sell EGAT shares on the market. The cabinet will have the final say, but it is expected to approve at least a year-long freeze. The labor movement said the two-month long protest by state energy workers would continue, and culminate in a partial work stoppage. "We demand nothing short of a cabinet resolution ending the privatization plan for electricity and water utilities," said EGAT labor leader Sirichai Main-ngram.
"The board's move was generally seen as a retreat by the government, which has been under pressure to shelve privatization plans for the state energy giant," wrote the Bangkok daily, The Nation. After the meeting of the new EGAT board (which is government-appointed), the EGAT Labor Association and the EGAT executives signed a pact declaring their joint stand against privatizing state enterprises providing key utility servicesprimarily electricity and tap water. The two parties also agreed that the 1999 State Enterprises Act, which has been criticized by opponents of privatization for containing loopholes that could allow foreigners to gain control over state enterprises should be replaced. Energy Minister Prommin Leertsuridej acknowledged the joint declarations, which also call for the participation of the labor side in future major decisions, but did not confirm fill government agreement.
Malaysia To Lead OIC Group in Meeting with Quartet
Malaysia will lead a delegation from the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to meet the Quartet on the Palestine situation, New Straits Times of Kuala Lumpur reported April 25. Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said he had spoken with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was encouraging and had a letter from Tony Blair agreeing to the meeting which will take place in about two weeks. He did not announce the OIC delegation, but New Straits Times reports that it will include Monaco, Palestine, Turkey and Senegal.
The communique from the OIC meeting, held in mid-April in Malaysia, called for the U.S. President to reverse his support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to keep the settlements and deny the right of return for the Palestinians.
Malaysia will also host a meeting of the Nonaligned Movement (NAM) on May 13. The main agenda at the NAM talks would be the Palestine crisis and the Iraqi war.
Mahathir Calls for New Bretton Woods
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, speaking at the Boao Forum in China, called for a new Bretton Woods meeting and a return to the gold standard. Mahathir asked: "Should Asian economies be held captive to the movement's of the U.S Dollar? It is time to get away from the dollar as a medium of exchange and consider a special trading currency for Asia, if not the world." He said a return to the gold standard should be seriously studies, to deal with the "woes of many countries that are suffering purely from the greenback's volatility. He said this would take a "concerted global effort", adding that "we should discuss this as they did at Bretton Woods years ago."
Washington, Karzai Ready to Embrace (Most of) Taliban
Coincident with the visible upsurge of violence in recent weeks in southern Afghanistan, three U.S. Marines were ambushed by anti-U.S and anti-Kabul insurgents. The incident occurred a day after Afghan Interim President Hamid Karzai had urged second-level Taliban leaders and militia to join the government and become a part of the new arrangement. While visiting Kandahar, where an attempt was made on his life about 19 months ago, Karzai told the Kandaharis that only a handful of Taliban leaders, who had joined hands with al-Qaeda, will not be allowed to join the mainstream. Karzai's statement is a clear shift from the position the U.S. had taken in recent months. Washington has consistently accused the Taliban ideology as repressive and pre-historic, and cited the Taliban lifestyle as barbaric and anti-woman. Washington had painted the Taliban as ogres to justify its eradication which began in the winter of 2001 following the 9/11 incident.
Now, Washington has come a full circle and realized that eradication of the Taliban is neither possible nor "politically convenient." Moreover, President Bush would like to show to the American people that he has tamed Afghanistan. Therefore, it seems that Washington and Kabul have come to the conclusion that it would be the best for all to embrace most of the Taliban members.
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