Asia-Pacific Archive

DILI, East Timor — All is calm in East Timor, but tension bubbles under the surface in this island state a few days before the historic, first post-independence parliamentary election, slated for June 30.Fourteen parties and coalitions arevying for seats in an election whose only certainoutcome is the creation of a meaningful political opposition, and thus potentially a more functional democracy than this former Portuguesecolony has ever known. However, only the next few months will prove whether that will translate into the stability and peace needed for real development, or into more trouble. The real political battle is between former […]

The world has dithered in putting together the necessary political response to the humanitarian catastrophe that has ensued in Darfur since 2003. The latest “breakthrough,” with the Sudanese government consenting to a hybrid U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, comes after years of stalling by Khartoum, and half-hearted efforts by the international community. In any case, the 20,000 troops will not get on the ground before 2008, and the peace agreement that they are meant to be enforcing remains a dead letter. So not much is likely to change for the traumatized people of Darfur anytime soon, despite French President […]

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan — Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has won a power struggle with officials of Turkmenistan’s government who played key roles in building and maintaining the oppressive regime of his predecessor, and who helped bring the new president to power. It remains unclear, however, whether Berdymukhammedov intends to use his consolidated power to continue down the dictatorial path of former leader Saparmurat Niyazov, or to institute promised reforms. The influential head of the presidential security service, Akmurad Rejepov, who served the late Niyazov loyally for nearly 20 years, was removed from office in mid-May. While Turkmenistan’s state television said Rejepov […]

SINGAPORE — Evidence is growing that threads of homespun Islamicextremism in seven countries of Southeast Asia are weaving links amongeach other. Malay Muslim insurgentsfighting an increasingly violent conflict in southern Thailand, forexample, now appear to be receiving assistance from Islamists elsewherein Southeast Asia.The thread appears to loosely wind through Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Cambodia and even tightly controlled Burma. Mention of terrorism in this region and the international community automatically thinks of the Bali bombings, which killed 202 vacationers in October 2002. But the violence is far worse in southern Thailand, where barely a day has gone by […]

Editor’s Note: To watch a video on the work of Zakia Zaki, click here. We were sitting in her office overlooking the rust-colored foothills of the Hindu Kush, Zakia Zaki speaking Persian slow enough for me to follow. A man brought in mugs of black tea and joined us. Zaki was the manager of the radio station I was visiting in Jabul Saraj, at the mouth to the mythic Panjshir valley, then half a day’s drive north of Kabul. The gentleman was her deputy. It was a first: I had never seen a man serve a woman tea in Afghanistan. […]

HERAT, Afghanistan — Thirteen-year-old Morvary’s face had melted away as a candle does, with only the faintest of breaths as proof she was still alive after setting herself ablaze. Mummified in white gauze and full of morphine to ease the pain of third-degree burns covering her entire body, she died two days later at Herat regional hospital, yet another victim in this conservative Western province where nearly 100 self-immolation cases were recorded last year. Human rights officials and doctors say the real number is much higher since only those who seek help are registered and even then causes are not […]

KABUL, Afghanistan — Traffic in the bustling capital city converges at a major intersection adjacent to a sprawling market ringed by wedding halls. Here, a dozen Afghan traffic police in white uniforms stop seemingly random cars. Heated conversations ensue, documents are passed back and forth, then money changes hands and the cops wave the drivers through. The drivers’ violation? “They are always making up excuses,” Mohammad Zaman, a commercial minibus driver, says of the traffic police. He says that every day he and his fellow drivers pass through the intersection in order to pick up passengers on a nearby side […]

Editor’s Note: Corridors of Power appears this week on Wednesday, but will return to its normal Monday slot next week. SOME EUROPEANS MORE WELCOME THAN OTHERS — High on the talks agenda of George Bush’s hosts everywhere he went in the New Europe was the visa waiver issue. Visitors to the United States from 15 European Union countries haven’t needed entry visas for years, but nationals of the 12 recently admitted members do, and the latter want equal treatment. Among them are the Eastern European countries on Bush’s recent travel itinerary. They complain that they supported Bush on Iraq, and […]

DENPASAR, Indonesia — After a military-civilian clash over disputed land in East Java turned deadly last month, outraged locals are urging Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to act decisively in taming trigger-happy soldiers and reigniting the stalled reform of the Indonesian armed forces. The incident is bound to echo in Washington, where some legislators in the now Democrat-controlled Congress have shown signs of uneasiness over President George W. Bush’s 2005 decision to resume U.S. ties and funding to the Indonesian military, also known as the TNI. The latest uproar was precipitated May 30 when Indonesian marines fired on protestors gathered […]

KABUL, Afghanistan — The bus bombing that killed at least 35 people Sunday in the deadliest attack in the capital since the fall of the Taliban may have been carefully planned with a timed device, says one of Afghanistan’s leading conflict analysts, another possible sign insurgent tactics are evolving. The Taliban claimed one of its suicide bombers was responsible for the thunderous early morning explosion that tore off the roof and sides of a bus carrying police recruits and blasted through two other transportation vehicles near Kabul police headquarters, scattering metal and body parts as far as 30 yards away. […]

Editor’s Note: Rights & Wrongs is a new weekly column on the world’s major human rights-related happenings. It is written by regular WPR contributor Juliette Terzieff. HUMAN TRAFFICKING A MAJOR GLOBAL PROBLEM: The U.S. State Department released its annual victims of human trafficking report on Tuesday, looking at the situation in 164 countries and ranking countries on their individual efforts to combat the trade. The annual report ranks countries on a three-tier system: Tier 1 includes countries that are extremely active in protecting trafficking victims; Tier 2 countries are those that may be falling short but are making significant efforts; […]

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan — Authorities in Kazakhstan recently passed a constitutional amendment that could allow President Nursultan Nazarbayev to remain in office for the rest of his life, but a Shakespearean drama playing out among members of the country’s ruling family has largely dominated the local media spotlight. At issue is whether Nazarbayev, who has led Kazakhstan since the late 1980s, is running a politically motivated investigation into his son-in-law, who claims to have fallen out of the president’s favor since privately revealing his own interest in running for president in 2012. Actions taken over the past month by Kazakh authorities […]

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to Tokyo Saturday from what he described as a “very satisfying” debut at the Group of Eight summit in Germany. Yet despite being quick to claim some personal success in steering international discussions on subjects including climate change, he returns to another in a series of polls showing support for his cabinet has plummeted in recent weeks. A survey by the Yomiuri Shimbun published Friday (June 8) showed Abe cabinet’s approval rating had sunk to 32.9 percent — a 17 percent drop from a poll conducted by the same newspaper less than […]

MELBOURNE, Australia — One Sydney gardener said he was as happy as a dog with two tails while in Melbourne three suburban blokes who sacrificed their beer brewing operation to save a drought-stricken veggie patch were tickled pink. The heaviest rainfall in years is finally hitting Australia, raising hopes the coming winter could spell an end for the “Big Dry,” which has crippled agriculture, reduced economic growth and imposed severe restrictions on life in the nation’s biggest cities. The rain started in late April and has continued to fall — with a routine unseen for at least six years — […]

In his presentation at the June 1-3 annual Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, Defense Secretary Robert Gates appeared much more sanguine about the possibilities of establishing a constructive Sino-American military relationship than his own Defense Department. A few days earlier, DOD had released the latest version of its annual publication, “Military Power of the People’s Republic of China 2007” (pdf file). The report’s content is replete with warnings about China’s growing military capabilities, something Gates downplayed at Singapore. As directed by Congress, the report focused on the potential threat posed by China to Taiwan. Its authors warn that China continues to […]

KABUL, Afghanistan — Based on total signage space, Arnold Schwarzenegger may be the second most popular man in Afghanistan. First place indisputably goes to Ahmed Shah Massoud, the mythic guerilla leader assassinated by al-Qaeda agents in 2001 after decades of fighting the Soviets and the Taliban. His image is venerated with a fervor that borders on the religious in government ministries, street side cafes and on bumper stickers. But take a drive around the capital known for its modesty, and massive homemade billboards of the shirtless former Mr. Olympia turned action star turned California governor are hard to miss. The […]

DENPASAR, Indonesia — When, in May 1998, former President Suharto’s 32-year rule came to an end, Indonesia, a secular nation with the world’s largest Muslim population, started a democratization process that has been praised worldwide. However, democracy has also opened the door for a previously dormant wing of radical Islam that wants to turn the country into an Islamic state. The clash between the two could soon be played out in the voting booth if, as suggested late last month by Indonesian Mujahedin Council (MMI) spokesman Fauzan al-Anshori, radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir decides to run for president in […]