The Agonist - Asia: Central

More Uighur Violence

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:07:23 -0700

This is really saddening. It really breaks my heart to hear of this, and to know this is happening in a city I have very strong feelings for. From the article:

On Monday morning, Xinhua, the state news agency, reported what appeared to be the deadliest assault against Chinese security forces in recent memory: 16 policemen were killed and 16 others injured when attackers threw two grenades into a police station in the desert oasis town of Kashgar, in the far west, after driving a truck into the station at 8 a.m. Two men were arrested.

I can't say, however, that I am surprised. This would be the best chance the Uighur's would ever have to draw any serious news coverage to their plight--and a valid plight it is, what with the Chinese boot firmly lodged at their throats for so long and so hard. But what pains me the most is that this attention getting is being done the worst possible way at the worst possible time. They won't elicit any sympathy from anyone, no matter how deserved. The killing of innocents never does. Even if they are policemen, and in some sense legitimate targets. I still don't understand why people don't just lay down in the middle of the road sometimes. What power a protest like that would portray? Don't we all remember the lone man stopping a column of tanks in Beijing in 1989?

Geopolitics on the Frontier

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:07:28 -0700

Ahmed Rashid has good timing. His earlier book, on the Taliban, came out just a year before the September 11th attacks and the subsequent US campaign in Afghanistan. His present offering, a look at the present situation in that country and the region around it, comes as the Taliban is reasserting control over the Pashtun south. Descent into Chaos is an excellent account of events in and around Afghanistan and an equally excellent analysis of the failure of nation building there, the role of Pakistani military intelligence in the region, and the greater context of the longstanding Pakistani-Indian conflict.

Rashid is critical of Western failures to foster the development of a state in Afghanistan – a failure he sees as resulting in instability, warlordism, economic stagnation, and the resurgence of the Taliban. A state with even a moderate amount of articulation and funding, he holds, would be able to integrate disparate tribal and militia leaders into a viable consensual framework. He draws here from his colleague (and my former teacher) Barnett Rubin, who looks upon historical examples. The British gave ample sums of money to Afghan monarchs who craftily dispersed it to build a consensual framework. The Soviet Union did the same, prior to its ill-advised and ill-starred invasion in 1979. If a state is too weak, warlordism develops. Too strong, regional rebellions break out. But a state with adequate funding, usually from foreign sources, that refrains from or cannot achieve too much central control, can govern through consensus.

Soldiers patrol Mongolian capital amid state of emergency

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:14:43 -0700

Ulan Bator | July 2

AFP - Heavily armed soldiers patrolled the capital of Mongolia Wednesday after a state of emergency was declared to quell deadly protests that erupted amid outrage over disputed national elections.

Four people were killed and about 400 policemen injured during the riots that saw thousands of protesters destroy buildings and cars as they stormed through Ulan Bator on Tuesday, according to state-run television.

The Soviet-era headquarters of the formerly communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) that claimed victory in the weekend elections was still smouldering after being set alight and looted in the unrest.

As the protests erupted, Prime Minister Sanjagiin Bayar, of the MPRP, accused the rival Democrats of inciting the violence by unfairly alleging Sunday's parliamentary elections had been rigged.

State troops decision sparks rare Tajik protest

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:18:24 -0700

Dushanbe | June 20

Reuters -

About 200 people held a rare protest in eastern Tajikistan on Friday against a state decision to send more troops to their province to guard its border with Afghanistan.

Tajikistan, whose stability is key to Western efforts to build law and order in Afghanistan, has been calm since the end of a brutal civil war in the 1990s. But Western powers worry that poverty and drug related crime could undermine stability.

The mountainous Gorno-Badakhshan region lies on one of the main drugs trafficking routes from Afghanistan to western Europe. It also borders China and Kyrgyzstan.

A local witness told Reuters by telephone from the regional centre Khorog that the decision sparked a protest in the city, adding that the demonstrators were against more troops in their province.

Will the US cede more moral highground?

Thu, 29 May 2008 06:22:10 -0700

The US balances human rights against access to Uzbekistan. Wanna bet which wins?

MI5 accused of colluding in torture of terrorist suspects

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:48:45 -0700

Ian Cobain | Rawalpindi, Pakistan | April 29

The Guardian - British agents alleged to have questioned men at Pakistani interrogation centre after they had been brutally mistreated

Officers of the Security Service, MI5, are being accused of "outsourcing" the torture of British citizens to a notorious Pakistani intelligence agency in an attempt to obtain information about terrorist plots and to secure convictions against al-Qaida suspects.

A number of British terrorism suspects who have been arrested in Pakistan at the request of UK authorities say their interrogation by Security Service officers, shortly after brutal torture at the hands of agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), has convinced them that MI5 colluded in the mistreatment.

Kyrgyz Babies Pass HIV to Mothers

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:32:44 -0700

Leila Saralayeva | Osh, Kyrgyzstan | April 9

AP - Not long ago, she was a wife, mother and teacher. Now Dilfuza Mustafakulova is HIV-positive and has lost her husband and her job. Mustafakulova's baby son was among 72 children infected with the virus at two Kyrgyz hospitals. Sixteen mothers also have contracted it - in some cases by breast-feeding their children.

The scandal has led to charges of negligence against 14 medical workers in the impoverished former Soviet republic, where investigators suspect the children were infected by tainted blood and the reuse of needles.

Scientists warn of wheat disease

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:31:10 -0700

Anna Hill | Norwich, UK | March 13

BBC - Scientists say poorer populations in vulnerable countries could starve if a disease called Ug-99 hits yields hard enough to push up wheat prices.

There is already a global wheat shortage and UN agencies are concerned about the impact of high food prices.

Central Asia? Where's That?

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:48:10 -0800

I can't help but to agree with Joshua here:

While I have become something of a broken record on Afghanistan, this is just appalling. Other countries in the region are incredibly important in the long term—and not just Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Uzbekistan is slowly gaining some warmth from the U.S. as it grants yet another cycle of amnesty, however temporary, to its human rights activists (a sad cycle we never seem to learn from). Kyrgyzstan has quite recently demonstrated a galling lack of security for radioactive materials—especially when headed for Iran. Speaking of Iran, they’re quite cleverly using the unbelievably cold weather in Tajikistan to slither into deeper defense ties with Dushanbe—right along the border with Afghanistan. And so on.

So what’s the deal, Washington? Mr. Bush? Why are you shorting a strategic region, and stomping on some of the little American goodwill left in the world?

This is why I write so little on international relations anymore because Iraq, as predicted by so many, has sucked the air out of any realistic discussion of what our real interests are.

Tajikistan in Power Supply Crisis

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:13:57 -0800

Olga Tutubalina | Dushanbe, Tajikistan | January 29

AP - With electricity reserves depleted, officials in impoverished Tajikistan - where residents are enduring one of the coldest winters in 25 years - said Tuesday they would be forced to cut power to much of the country.

Supplies already have been cut off in many rural areas and are severely rationed in the capital, Dushanbe. Some residents are being limited to one to two hours of electricity a day, and the state-owned power company warned of more cuts.

Widespread shortages are a recurrent problem in Tajikistan, but a sharp drop in water levels at the Nurek reservoir, which powers a key hydroelectric plant, triggered the current crisis. Tajikistan is rich in water resources, but the unusually cold weather has frozen rivers flowing into the Nurek reservoir

So much for human rights in Uzbekistan

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:51:59 -0800

My my my Admiral William Fallon kissing some Karimov butt. I guess the Andijan massacre of May 2005 was just a figment of Western imagination.

India launches Israeli satellite

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:19:10 -0800

January 21

BBC - India has successfully launched an Israeli spy satellite into orbit, officials at the Sriharikota space station in southern India say.

The Israeli press is reporting that the satellite will improve Israel's ability to monitor Iran's military activities.

Indian officials that given these sensitivities, the operation was secret and carried out under tight security.

The Tecsar satellite - sometimes referred to as the Polaris - was put into space on Monday morning.

'Sinister tie-up'

Tecsar is said to have enhanced footage technology, which allows it to transmit images regardless of daytime and weather conditions.

Photo journal: A Mongolian Nomad Family

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 18:38:55 -0800

Tsolmon's camp

Tsolmon's family are nomads, like 48% of the Mongolian population.

Towards the end of autumn, they camp in the steppes to the west of Ulan Bataar.

Tsolmon, his wife Bazar and Saruul and Erdene - the only two of their children still at home - live together in one yurt. Tsolmon's mother, Shuren, lives in the next door one.

Two other daughters live in Ulan Bataar - one is working, while the other is studying. more at BBC

Uzbek president returned in election 'farce

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 17:20:14 -0800

Luke Harding | Tashkent | Dec 24

The Guardian - · Law flouted as leader prolongs rule yet again
· Dissidents condemn EU inaction over regime

Uzbekistan's autocratic ruler Islam Karimov yesterday tightened his grip on power, when he was re-elected president in an election condemned by opposition activists as illegal and a "farce".

Karimov won an overwhelming victory despite being ineligible to stand as a candidate, having already served two consecutive presidential terms.

Election officials claimed that Karimov's first term began in 2000 - despite the fact that he has ruled Uzbekistan for 18 years, first as a Communist party boss, and then, after independence, as president.

His government is among the most repressive in former Soviet central Asia. Uzbekistan, the region's most populous country, is at the hub of an energy-rich region that is the subject of rivalry between Russia, the US and China.

Russian gas deal dashes EU hopes

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:49:41 -0800

Dec 20

BBC -
Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have signed a landmark deal to build a gas pipeline.

The pipeline will strengthen Moscow's control over Central Asian energy export routes, analysts said.

It also deals a blow to European Union hopes of securing alternate routes that would bypass Russia.

The pipeline will skirt the Caspian Sea from Turkmenistan to southern Russia via Kazakhstan and will be built by the end of 2010.

The trilateral agreement was signed in Moscow in the presence of President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan.