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Sat 16 November

Newsean presents news and analysis you need to know - highlights, summaries and no-nonsense commentaries from and about East and South Asia, and the world from Thailand, free-press capital of the area.

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Fighting terror, helping people

The logo of Apec 2002

An Asia-Pacific summit demands respect

Los Cabos, Mexico: (23 Oct) As you read this, Asia-Pacific leaders at their annual Apec summit will be working on anti-terrorist measures.

Last year and this, the Apec forum is meeting after horrendous terrorist attacks, on New York and lately on Bali. At Shanghai, the 21 national leaders promised to bear down on terrorists six ways from Sunday, including financing, aviation and maritime safety, energy security, telecoms, customs procedures and border security.

It has been a long, hard slog but this year's meeting sees Apec more vitalised and alert than ever.

The Apec Secretariat is based in Singapore and its executive director is Alejandro de la Pena. It's not surprising he thinks Apec is a serious international group, but the fact is that over the past two years Apec has become more important.

This year, the meeting has twin goals. Members want to help their economy and fight terror. Here is what they will try to do:

• Build up security against real threats, and on the six fronts mentioned above, while they
• Continue to make it as easy as possible for businessmen, tourists and regular people to move across borders and within the 21 members countries.

On paper, you could make these twin goals seem incompatible. In fact, they are achievable.

Apec: A backgrounder

Apec has 21 members. In alphabetical order, they are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, USA, Vietnam.

These 21 economies represent

• 50 percent of world trade, 

• 60 percent of the world population, and 

• at least a quarter of the world's Muslims.

Putin, Bush and practical joker host Jiang Zemin, Shanghai 2001

Apec has been derided as four adjectives in search of a noun: Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Its meetings were best known as a place where the host country dressed up visitors in costumes and silly hats.

The first one in Seattle had Prime Minister Chuan of Thailand in a black leather jacket. Last year in Shanghai, the Chinese dressed the Westerners in rather, er, eye-catching silk jackets and this year Mexico is getting even by making Asians wear huge floppy sombreros.

How Iraq lies to the world community

Click here for a full-size version of this graphic.

Nobody denies and deceives like Baghdad

Every country uses denial and deception to a certain extent. It is a standard form of protection, a necessary art of war. But no one — no country or group or organisation — uses D&D to the extent or the purpose of Iraq

Country A fears an invasion by Country B. Country A will attempt to downplay the threat by ordering its diplomats to make strong representation to Country B diplomats — denial of any urgency. At the same time, Country A will move two battalions of troops to defend a vulnerable border, at night — deception.

Denial and Deception are so closely linked that they are usually linked in common use. Military forces and defence officials around the world are familiar with “D&D”.

To a certain extent, many countries from A to Z practice D&D. For their own survival, they do not want to give away all details of their defences. China routinely understates its military budget and seldom gives details of research. The United States forbids overflights of some sensitive areas. Thailand hides its entire intelligence budget and key military installations are off limits to outsiders.

No nation, and we really need to emphasise that no country on Earth including rogue nations uses D&D like Iraq, nor for such nefarious reasons.

The purpose of Iraqi D&D is simply stated. Baghdad seeks to confuse and stonewall the world on its weapons of mass destruction: nuclear, biological and chemical. This is clear. If Iraq had no such weapons development it would use no D&D at all.

How to cheat: A primer

Iraq has told the United Nations nine times it has no research facilities or terrible weapons. Every time Iraq signed off on this, UN weapons inspectors came up with more evidence; Iraq worked on the inspectors' discoveries, and then claimed again it had no weapons or research labs.

Here are a few of the D&D techniques used by Iraq:

• Iraq has built a biological weapons facility that seems to be ordinary buildings in a residential neighbourhood.

• Baghdad officials have delayed UN officials at the front gate of a facility while secretly removing material from the back.

  
  Click here for a full-size version of this graphic.

• Facilities are real plants to make health and household goods like bug spray also have biological and chemical weapons research facilities.

• A dozen so-called presidential palaces are off limits. Supposedly they are vital to the image of the president. In fact, they are up to 100 times the size of Buckingham Palace and contain vast facilities.

• Iraq employs outright lies like the so-called milk factory. Iraq claims a castor plant produces brake fluid, but castor is a key part of the biological agent ricin.

A Pentagon briefer recently talked about Iraqi deception and denial tactics. Here is a lengthier report and backgrounder. (The report will open in a new browser window. Close it and return here automatically.)

This just in. Saddam Hussein has been re-elected president by a vote of more than 99.9%. The other 0.01% of voters faces the death penalty.

Who needs enemies with Burma around?

No democracy but lots of drugs

The border between Thailand and Burma has partly reopened.

That is the first important point. The two countries are fellow members of Asean — Thailand sponsored Burma over the objections of many — and thousands of traders have exchanged goods since, well, forever.

But after 21 weeks and a day of cutting off its nose to spite its face, Burma opened three crossing points. They are at the Thai provinces of Chiang Rai in the far north, Tak in the central-north and Ranong in the far south. The rest of the frontier remains officially closed.

Of course it's not actually closed. Certain people can cross. Certain people seem to get a lot of help from the Burmese to cross. The irony is that while Thailand has long lobbied for more and more border crossings, to help local folks prosper, these are border travellers who are definitely unwelcome.

They are the men and agents of the United Wa State Army, the biggest, baddest, meanest drug organisation ever seen in Southeast Asia.

Not only do the Wa control a bigger drug trade and ever. Not only does the UWSA control a dual trade in methamphetamines (ya ba) and heroin. But they are the first to establish a vertical market so powerful they even control the actions and markets of Chinese drug traffickers, who smuggle and market Wa-made heroin world-wide.

The drug trade continues to ravage Thailand and is spreading. Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Laos and India all report growing abuse of Wa-made methamphetamines. Wa-made ya ba has reached America, Australia and Europe..

Meanwhile, the regime refuses to negotiate with the loyal opposition. Last May, when they released Aung San Suu Kyi from detention, the dictators promised the United Nations they would discuss national reconciliation. Not a meeting has occurred. This strong dictatorship means the regime's friends are free to continue making and trafficking drugs, even as the government stifles freedom.

The UWSA

The economic links between the Wa and the Rangoon regime are unclear. Certainly, some Wa profits and the profits of their allies like Lo Hsing-han and Khun Sa wind up as so-called foreign investment in Rangoon.

Many believe money from the drugs trade goes to Burmese government coffers. Others believe individual members of the military junta are on the take. A third claim is that the country teeters on the edge of being a narcocracy.

Evidence that the government is directly reliant on the drugs trade is slim and unclear. But this is certain: The Rangoon dictatorship is closely allied to the UWSA, and acquiesces in the drug trade.

Indeed, Rangoon leaders including “Secretary One” Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt have made public appearances in the Wa regions to praise such actions as building towns close the Thai border — towns where drugs are openly manufactured for smuggling to Thailand.

It is a fact that Rangoon has promised to crack down on drugs but has acted uniquely against opium farmers, with a small programme of crop substitution. There is evidence Rangoon has requested the UWSA to remove its drug-making factories from the biggest towns, in order not to embarrass Rangoon. There is not a shred of evidence of Rangoon acting against methamphetamine making, smuggling or trafficking.

And that operation is the No 1 security threat to Thailand and other Asean neighbours.

A recent Bangkok Post editorial pointed out how Rangoon refuses to keep promises.

The editorial claims Burma is just fooling the world with pious statements it intends to negotiate with democracy forces and help the anti-drug campaign. In fact, its actions seem dedicated to the single goal of maintaining the dictatorship.

Click here to read the editorial. It will open in a new browser window. Simply close it when you have finished reading the editorial and you will return here.

Good riddance to a bad regime

And by the way: Why didn't the world act sooner?

The Taliban have collapsed and the world can only celebrate that fact.

The regime that claimed to be declaring war on corruption and mis-rule ended up sowing more division in Afghanistan than the fractious alliance and coalitions they deposed.

The Taliban cleaned up corruption and mis-rule the way the fascists of Europe cleaned up those trains that used to run late. The problem with the Taliban was that instead of winning a war on corruption, they declared scores of their own wars, ruinous to the nation and the moral fibre of Afghanistan.

The Taliban declared war on women, war on tolerance, war on culture and war on learning. They imprisoned women in a score of ways. They blew up the nation's leading symbol of history, culture and peace, the giant Bamiyan Buddha images. They forced Hindus to wear yellow cloth patches.

If the Taliban were only guilty of being a brutal, anti-social, violent and intolerant regime, they still deserved to be overthrown. But they made two other errors that should cause the world to consider, carefully:

How can we continue to allow regimes like the Khmer Rouge and the Taliban to exist so long?

The Taliban, by conscious policy decision, became the world's biggest narcotics producer. The regime encouraged farmers to raise poppies, bought the opium, produced and marketed the heroin. Clearly, not all Taliban agreed with this illegal, unsociable and irreligious act.

Indeed, last year, one Taliban faction ordered, and enforced, an end to opium farming. Up until its unlamented last day in Kabul, however, the Taliban remained the world's biggest stockpiler and supplier of opium and heroin. That dubious honour now reverts to another unadmirable regime, the military dictatorship of Burma.

The final, fatal flaw

The major reason the Taliban deserved to collapse was their decision to welcome the terrorist leader, Osama bin Laden. The leadership has tried to obscure this by claiming that Muslims are obliged to shelter brothers, but this is errant nonsense, frequently and forcefully rebutted by the world's top Islamic scholars and authorities.

The Taliban were no more required to shelter Osama bin Laden and his gang than a Buddhist abbott must provide amnesty to a murderer - or a Christian pastor or a Hindu priest. Bin Laden was wanted throughout the world, including by the United Nations and Interpol. By providing the methods, means, sanctuary and grounds for preparation for the numerous, murderous attacks by the bin Laden gang, the Taliban became responsible. No one, in law or religion, can abet criminal behaviour.

Bin Laden refused to face his accusers; the Taliban refused even to discuss the issue, let alone act responsibly and turn over the terrorist to a competent authority.

For reasons that the world must consider, bin Laden was allowed freedom to plan and carry out numerous atrocities. His gang, called al Qaeda (The Base), has stretched its mafia-like operations into countries around the world. Followers have killed and debased the security of the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Taliban allowed and encouraged the bin Laden gang to set up their own military and para-military training camps. They had to assert Arab control of regions of the country, a national sellout. The Taliban knew and celebrated the purposes of the terrorist training by the al Qaeda gang.

Neither the Taliban nor bin Laden regretted their actions against Muslims or Islamic nations. Both groups considered themselves the true Muslims, and the deaths of all others were inconsequential.

These views are often attributed to bin Laden, who brags of them. But only the welcome the Taliban gave to him made it possible to carry out so many atrocities, in so many places.

Farewell, Taliban. And good riddance.

Hokum and bunkum confusion the issues

Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's true

Misinformation and disinformation sometimes grow into legends and lore. War time always exaggerates the hokum and bunkum. Some mistruths attain heroic status. Some serve as the rotten foundations of even more audacious untruths.

Here are some of the most common, early myths around the latest world conflict.

Myth: The Taliban fought the Russians and then won the peace. The Taliban did not beat the Russians because there was no Taliban in the 1979-1986 war against invading Soviet troops. The Taliban formed their army after the Russian defeat. The Taliban killed thousands of fellow Afghans. They have never killed a single foreign invader.

Myth: The CIA created bin Laden. This Noam-Chomskyite nonsense is popular among leftists and other muddleheads. Of course they never rant about how support for Polish Solidarity has blown back on the United States. During the anti-Russian war, bin Laden and Americans did much the same thing: They donated money which bought weapons. If the Americans formed groups, where are they today?

Myth: The Taliban hide bin Laden because Islam demands protection for guests. Fact: Islam forbids providing shelter to anyone fleeing justice, just like all civilised beliefs and laws.

Myth: The Americans refused a Taliban offer to extradite or expel bin Laden. The Taliban do not consider existing evidence to be enough. If anyone wants bin Laden, they must go and get him.

Myth: Osama bin Laden is an Islamic cleric and the faithful must consider his religious fatwa. Bin Laden has no formal training. Mullah Omar himself said the bin Laden order to attack Americans is illegimate. People believe it because they want to believe it.

Truth is a casualty

Myth: Ramadan is a traditional month of prayer and peace, and cease-fire is imperative. Ramadan is a month of extra religious obligation, to fast from dawn to dusk. Every Muslim school child knows that war during Ramadan has occurred since the Year 2, on the Muslim calendar, when the prophet Mohammad led 313 followers in the glorious battle of Badr on Ramadan 17.

Myth: Osama bin Laden became an extremist over the Palestinians. Bin Laden has given neither aid nor comfort to the Palestinians. His attention to their cause is a tool of justification against the Americans. Bin Laden has called for struggle against Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Myth: A Middle East peace now would play right into bin Laden's hands. Peace will cool some of the terrorist fervour. It is in the interests of a civilised society to have peace. Middle East developments will not affect bin Laden's actions.

Myth: If we change our way of life, the terrorists will have won. Citizens must remain vigilant against attacks on civil liberties, but September 11 changed the world. If this myth were true, Al Jazeera would already have broadcast the victory message over airline checkins and US immigration checks.

Myth: People must not follow the herd mentality exploited by the US government. This may be the most calm, composed and careful. No war has ever been declared with less vilification. A month passed before a shot was fired. This is a war mentality?

Myth: We're not involved. The most unwilling, peaceful, anti-American nation is involved. People from 80 nations died in the New York atrocities, and Al Qaeda followers have bombed, burnt and butchered in every region in the world.

This article is adapted from an op-ed article in the Bangkok Post. The full text can be found here

A week after the attacks on America, the BBC reported the rising Asian casualties.

Don't forget the daily news on the Newsean Updates page. You can bookmark and return to this page often. It is updated regularly, often daily, with news of Thailand and, especially, its decisions on the war on terrorism.

  And coming soon: Thailand headlines for WAP. Stand by.

The September 11 attacks against the world

People from nearly 90 countries died in New York

Weird Al Qaida and Osama bin Laden say they must follow a fatwa issued by the gang leader to kill Americans. It is the duty, claims this illegal order, of all Muslims to kill US citizens, civilian or military.

The gang leader has expanded and restricted this order in various ways, but lately has expanded on it.

“In my view, if an enemy occupies a Muslim territory and uses common people as human shield, then it is permitted to attack that enemy.”

That is what he said to the editor of a Pakistani newspaper who interviewed him on November 9 in Afghanistan. In his mind, it's fine to kill women, children, ordinary people because “the enemy” according to Osama bin Laden is hiding among them.

This is an extremely warped view of Islam, according to most scholars. For example:

“Islam never allows a Muslim to kill the innocent and the helpless.” — Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Qatari Muslim scholar, Doha, Qatar, says terrorism is a grave sin

“It's not courageous to attack innocent children, women, and civilians. It is stupid and will be punished on the day of judgment.” — Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed al-Tantawi of Al-Azhar mosque and university, Cairo, Egypt

What many miss, however, is that Osama bin Laden cannot even follow his own, conveniently shaped order to himself and to Muslims. The terrible death toll in the airplanes that Weird Al Qaida turned into bombs — in the World Trade Center on September 11 — was not restricted to American men, women and children in any manner.

Don't forget the daily news on the Newsean Updates page. You can bookmark and return to this page often. It is updated regularly, often daily, with news of Thailand and, especially, its decisions on the war on terrorism.

  And coming soon: Thailand headlines for WAP. Stand by.

A massive toll

  People from 89 countries are known to have died at the hands of the hijackers admired by Osama bin Laden. The map on the left (at the beginning of this article) shows the tremendous effect of the attacks on America. Countries in blue suffered dead.

He says he didn't do it, but Osama bin Laden says he admires, specifically, this:

The dead included men, women, children and babies.

They came from all over the world.

They included every major religion. Muslims died just as others.

A 20-year-old Thai woman was killed. She worked in the top floor restaurant of the World Trade Center, and was a victim of the fire or collapse of the building. Imagine her terror.

A worker in the Board of Trade office managed to escape — with burns to 40% of her body.

Here is a list of the countries known to have suffered people killed in the terrorist attacks on America. Remember: The areas in blue on the map suffered casualties. 

Here are their homelands:

A week after the attacks on America, the BBC reported the rising Asian casualties.

Another BBC story discusses the incredibly difficult job of finding and identifying victims.

A story in the Straits Times of Singapore is headlined 7,000 people from 60 countries killed in US attacks

A different version of essentially the same story contains slightly updated figures and is available from the Hindustan Times of India

A new list of terrorist groups shows the problem

Five more regional groups make terrorism's A-List

Another 46 groups have been added to the list of known terrorist organisations. The purpose is to attack violence in the pocketbook. It is also a stark reminder that this is a war without borders.

The new, improved, household-sized list of terrorist groups brings the number of dangerous, “designated” networks to 73.

The new requests for banks, money changers and customs officers to follow the money represents a vast widening of the effort. The list includes Irish, Basque and Colombian groups, one of the many answers President Bush has come up with to show there is no war on Islam.

Even more interesting to some is the inclusion of five new groups from Southeast Asia — three from the Philippines and one each from Indonesia and Malaysia. Previous US lists of terrorists had included only the Abu Sayyaf.

“These (new) groups on the list should remind folks in this region that terrorists are living around them, too,” says a western diplomat.

Two of the new groups on the list are non-Islamic. The New People’s Army and the radical Alex Boncayao Brigade are loosely allied, Maoist groups.

Two others are the Free Aceh Movement of Indonesia, known as GAM from its Bahasa name; the extremely strange Al-Ma’Unah (Brotherhood of Inner Power) cult of Malaysia. The fifth is the Moro Islamic Liberation Front of the southern Philippines, which has won recognition from some as a mainstream political faction even while it continues criminal and terrorist acts including kidnapping foreigners.

Of the 73 groups on the revised US list, Malaysia’s Al-Ma’Unah is undoubtedly the strangest. On the surface, the cult espouses a mix of Islam and martial arts. It also espouses violence, overthrow of the government and imposition of a non-standard Islamic regime.

Other groups are equally dangerous, or even more sinister. (Continued above, right)

Don't forget the daily news on the Newsean Updates page. You can bookmark and return to this page often. It is updated regularly, often daily, with news of Thailand and, especially, its decisions on the war on terrorism.

  And coming soon: Thailand headlines for WAP. Stand by.

And there are more

  There are other groups in Asean which are clearly terrorist. US officials said they are not on the American list of such groups — for now — for two major reasons.

Many of the groups are involved only in domestic terror and crime. They include three known organisations in Thailand: The Pattani and New Pattani United Liberation Organisations and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional.

These separatists were likely behind attacks last year on public schools, a clinic and a police station in the South. For now, though, the bandits have no clear foreign links — beyond friends and relations in Malaysia — and their targets have been Thai. In such cases, the US has opted to let governments handle their domestic problems, in order to keep the fights better focussed.

Then there are the anonymous terrorists, who cannot be listed for obvious reasons.

The recent string of bombings in Laos was clearly organised and targetted foreigners. Nine Thais, for example, were wounded at the major border crossing in January, the 11th such blast. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, and there have been no known arrests. The group responsible might make the US list, if it ever is identified.

Unwilling guests of the violent Abu Sayyaf gang of the southern Philippines 

In sheer violence in the region, it is tough to beat the Abu Sayyaf. But the old New People’s Army has killed far more people in its 32-year attempt to overthrow the Manila government and replace it with a Khmer Rouge-style regime. All of the NPA’s tactics have been compared with the Khmer Rouge. The group has even killed thousands of its own members in purges which are remarkably similar to the paranoid slaughters of the Khmer Rouge “enemies” during the time they ruled Cambodia.

Directed from the Netherlands by the bookish Jose Maria Sison, the NPA has a huge network to collect funds, usually under the guise of charity work by leftist non-government organisations. Putting the NPA on the list of terrorist groups puts a huge squeeze on the Filipino communists.

The GAM of Aceh claims to fight for freedom. It smuggles guns from Phuket when it is not attacking Indonesians and foreigners. It is suspected of planting bombs in Jakarta, including at the Malaysian Embassy and stock exchange. The allegedly mainstream MILF of the Philippines is a kidnapping gang and has bombed malls and offices in Manila as well as the South.

Thailand was one of the first nations to join President George Bush’s war on terrorist finances. The new US list, when it officially reaches the system, should keep accountants and auditors busy for a while, because it is certain several of the accused regional groups move money through the country.

This article was adapted from the lead Op-Ed article in the Bangkok Post on 5 November 2001. The full article may be found here.

IN RECENT ISSUES

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The Thailand Meteorological Department

Quotable

Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, not a religion.

US President George W Bush praises Islam as a religion of peace

Older items below

Quotable

I want to beg all the angels in the sky not to give us as much rain as yesterday.

Bangkok city clerk Nathanon Thavisin, a day after a downpour flooded the city